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I didn't think Cubs weren't convincingly the better team in Game 1, but the Sox convincingly took this one. Couldn't have asked for a much better answer after last night. Davis Martin remains a joy to watch. Mune, Montgomery, and Miggy have homered in the same game 4 times already, one shy of the franchise season record (Valentin, Konerko, Crede in 2004). 6-2 on the homestand with the finale pending. 13-10 at home on the season. Sox lead the league in HR and OPS in May. Their 9-5 May record is T-5 in MLB and 2nd in the AL behind the Rays (11-3). DET/KC/MIN lost, CLE won. Still 1 GB, but a bit more cushion (3.5G) for 2nd. Royals on a league-worst L6. Still in the 2nd WC, and SEA/TEX also lost. From 23-52 to 23-22 in a year is quite something.

Tim Elko was one of those punted picks. It's just the wrong way to look at the draft. I always put the players in order by signing bonus. Many players taken in rounds 11-20 are more highly regarded than guys in 7-10. If you want a player that is signing for $50K, it makes sense to do it rounds 7-10 and re-allocate that bonus pool space. Everyone in rounds 11-20 can get $150K without penalty. It's just important to understand how the draft and bonus pools work. Roch Cholowsky has an incredibly high ceiling too. Perennial All Star SS with plus defense is his ceiling. The reason why the floor argument comes into play is that he's a definite big leaguer but I also believe that he's the most likely guy to reach his high ceiling. Jacob Lombard has a higher ceiling. He also has a way more difficult path to actually reaching that immense ceiling. Taking Roch Cholowsky is a no brainer for me.

The Sox had ZERO BUSINESS winning that game and the Mariners had ZERO BUSINESS losing it. One of those games that can flip a season come October. I'll have more later, still on cloud 9. I got home from the park in 10 minutes on a $2.50 scooter ride too. Gotta love modern convenience.

That's gotta be the best Sox game since Field of Dreams.

I'm a lifelong Cardinal fan, but now I've modified that to say, "The Cards are my National League team, and the Sox are my American League team." This certainly is a fun team to watch, and it seems that when one guy isn't able to do what he'd hoped, another guy is there to pick him up. This is a classy bunch of guys, right across the board, although I'll admit I'm a little partial toward my great-nephew out there in left field!

"Will Venable was dismissed as manager of the Chicago White Sox effective immediately. Despite the team playing wildly beyond expectations and increasing attendance and excitement around the team significantly, he reportedly asked a newly-promoted slap hitter to bunt in a regular season game. It is unclear whether he will face criminal charges, and his family has asked for privacy at this difficult time."

You.

If the Cards beat the Cubs tonight, the a Sox will have the best record in Chicago!

Don't stop get it get it

You're a Sox fan. Your life IS suffering.

He's still fucking awful.

9 game homestand vs. a wildcard rival, a division rival, and the crosstown rival… Sox come out of it 7-2. Their starter didn't have it today, their closer didn't have it (bad luck/calls aside), and they stranded the winning run at 2nd in the 9th...but still came through with a win vs. a Cubs team with the 3rd best record in baseball. Really feels like this team has earned a bit more than people calling the game when they go down 2 early or give up 1 late. They aren’t going to win all of them, but they are going to fight like hell. Sox improve to 24-22. Win 24 last year came over a month later in the season (June 20)...and was paired with 52 losses. 3 hits, 5 ABS overturns, and a massive walkoff dong for EQ. He's too young and too talented to give up on. Top of the order can hang with a lot of teams, and the role guys have been finding their own ways to chip in. Let's mess around and win another west coast road trip (might need another fresh arm...), and then we'll see what they're really made of with a 10 game run vs. the division. CLE won again (thanks for nothing, Reds), so still 1 GB.

Literally nobody has ever said it's an important stat that has any sense at all. It's a fluke. A team has never been able to consistently outperform their talent in 1 run games outside a one season sample. I don't mind you as much as others here but you consistently post some of the strangest "gotchas". Like who are you digging at here? Can you not just enjoy the improved team as much you seemingly do without trying to constantly instigate off nonsense?

I've seen a lot of chatter about Roch's batting splits (which, I should emphasize, are uniformly small sample size and hard to take seriously). Roch in 3 games against SEC: .273/.357/.636, .994 OPS Roch in 14 games against RPI top 50: .382/.485/.782, 1.267 OPS Roch in 24 games against RPI Q1 + Q2: .337/.492/.696, 1.188 OPS Roch in 12 games on Fridays (i.e., against opposing ace): .255/.413/.489, .902 OPS Roch in 8 games on Fridays against RPI top 100 opponents: .364/.488/.697, 1.185 OPS So to me, not obvious that he shrivels up and dies against good opponents or is particularly feasting on bad opponents. Some additional commentary that his numbers year over year are very similar. I'll note that these splits were very different last season... 3 games against SEC: .077/.077/.077, .154 OPS 23 games against RPI top 50: .273/.383/.455, .838 OPS 29 games against RPI Q1 + Q2: .293/.390/.517, .907 OPS 15 games on Fridays: .276/.405/.517, .923 OPS 8 games on Fridays against RPI top 100: .167/.257/.367, .624 OPS While I wouldn't advise taking any of it too seriously, it is descriptively true that under the hood his 2026 production has shifted more towards hitting well against good competition.

Cleveland loses 9-1, Sox are 2GB

What is this

Was at the ballgame tonight. Ive always felt in the seasons where playoffs are in our sights, come August the crowd has a different feel. I kind of felt that tonight. The 9th and 10th was electric and it sort of felt like we expected the win. Love when everyone organically comes to their feet at the right moments. Its been a while and tonight was a joy.

this is one of the most joejoe takes of all joejoe takes. enjoy the win one time buddy. this was a magical come back winner

Tell me Vargas isn’t the happiest he’s ever been in his career. Love watching a dude grow as a player and a leader. it’s been a really shitty, shitty day. Good to end it smiling.

I hate it when they throw the ball back on the field. Thats Cubs bs

I dont even like Benetti but this is an insane take. Schiffren is the worst announcer in baseball by a mile. He actively makes the games worse. It's amazing. It's honestly like every game is the first baseball game he's ever watched.

Hard to stand up when you are actively vomiting because of how terrible the broadcast is.

If you don't absolutely love this team, you ain't a White Sox fan. This team has absolutely no quit in it!

We FUCKIN. One of the most fun wins of the year.

Said I'd start 'em up again if and when it happened. Here we are. Keep it going!

Also got a kick out of these on a KCR blog yesterday:

If you are trying to tell me that a mortgage company is more ethical than McDonalds lol McDonald’s at least is a brand name you know you won’t have to rip off the wall in a few years because the company went belly up

Also what a hell of a game by Sean Burke. Pitched his ass off.

Who would you rather see play there? The best option is him at first, and not disrupting Vargas and Colson all that much. The point is for him to come up, play 1st, and fucking mash.

GLP1 use is getting out of hand.

For my money, today’s MVP was Taylor.

Go f*** right off boy. We had our fit to be cut starting pitcher going against arguably their guy with the best stuff. Take your bullshit Debbie Downer horseshit out of this thread and if you keep it up then you’re headed straight to The Hall of Fame List. Clear?

Don't move Colson from SS in my opinion

That's called baseball

This and other people freaking out/ giving up is silly. Colson is heating up. Gonzalez will hit up here. They’ll be fine against Detroit next two, and at Minnesota, and yes at Philly. After that they will really need Mune.

Before anyone says Benintendi is hitting well lately: He's got .148/.148/.333 over his last 7 and .204/.273/.600 over his last 15. For a guy that's played 3 innings of defense all years, that's horrible.

They have the 4th best OPS and 2nd most HR against LHP this season, people just don't like the names on the lineup card.

Sandlin's statcast metrics and repertoire look meaningfully different this season compared to last. Against righties, he's throwing about 40% 4-seam, 31% sweepers, 20% sinkers, and a curveball or cutter here and there. Last season against righties, the 4-seam was only 14%, the sweeper was 27%, a cutter was being used for 19% of pitches, 10% were a slider, and 30% was the sinker. He got a lot of whiffs on those non-sinker offerings to righties in 2025 but when there was contact he was hit really hard. Not quite so many whiffs this year, but the contact has been much weaker. Against lefties, leaning even harder on the 4-seam using it 48% of the time. The featured offspeeds are an 81mph curveball for 21% of pitches and a 91mph cutter for 17%. There's also a 91mph "sinker" used about 10% of pitches that I suspect is a kick change. Last season, he only threw the 4 seam 27% of the time to the lefties and really just had a kitchen sink approach: 26% cutter, 17% sweeper, 13% sinker, 10% slider, 7% curveball. None of it really worked in 2025. Lefties haven't really hit him at all in this short stint in 2026. Besides the difference in mix, the pitches don't seem the same. The curveball is slower and bigger. He's no longer throwing a slider. This year's cutter has more depth. This year's sweeper has a lot more drop with the same big sideways break. The 4-seam has a much lower spin rate and slightly less rise but has been a lot more effective. I suspect he was slightly cutting the 4-seamer last year which tends to create wasted spin. It's interesting to see all that change and the mostly-good results in AAA, but it also makes you think he might not have enough reps to be consistent with all this new stuff. Hope it all goes well.

I don't understand. This isn's like an "either/or". Cholowsky has a really high ceiling and he'll get better in the player dev system too. I don't think he plateaued. There's still a huge ceiling to reach.

Hey, how about a season where we beat up on the rest of the Central. Let's do it!!!

They say this guy may be the Japanese Nick Madrigal.

The fact that he may be replacing Acuna is enough to love.

Davis Martin went to 6-0 after a Sox loss and Giants looked terrible as the Sox got 9 runs on 5 hits all in 1 inning. Antonacci had 2 HBP in that inning and Mune had a bases clearing double Meidroth had abases loaded walk and Benintendi a 2 run double.

That D. Hill hit was big after the strikeout. Extremely fun inning in an otherwise blah game. Got the win, glad I stayed up.

It's such a PR win. Kids of hometown heroes + prospects. Not wanting to take Roch is the definition of the "my steak is too tender and my lobster too buttery" meme. A ton of people seem to assume 1) Emerson will magically turn into a CF 2) Colson, Meidroth, Vargas and Murakami are all locked in here for the next decade. Let's remember that the Sox took Colson when they had an All-Star SS.