White Sox Drop Finale Tune-Up, Lock Up AL's Sixth Seed
The short version
- White Sox lost 9-6 to the Rockies and settled for the AL's No. 6 playoff seed
- Cleveland's win over Kansas City gave the Guardians the AL Central and a first-round bye
- Chicago opens a best-of-three AL wild-card series on the road Tuesday against Texas or Houston
- Davis Martin allowed three runs in two-thirds of an inning after a first-batter error
- The regular season concludes Sunday at Rate Field
A 9-6 loss to Colorado, combined with Cleveland's win, ended Chicago's division hopes and sent the club on the road for a best-of-three wild-card series starting Tuesday.
The Chicago White Sox wrapped up the American League's sixth playoff seed Saturday after a 9-6 defeat against the Colorado Rockies before 31,938 fans at Rate Field. The loss, paired with Cleveland's 11-5 victory over Kansas City, ended Chicago's bid for the AL Central championship.
Chicago will now travel for a best-of-three AL wild-card series beginning Tuesday against either the Texas Rangers or the Houston Astros, whichever club finishes as the AL West champion. The Guardians claimed the division instead, taking their third consecutive crown and seventh in the past eleven seasons while earning a first-round bye as the league's No. 2 seed.
The afternoon began badly for the home side. Starter Davis Martin covered first on leadoff hitter Jake McCarthy's ground ball, dropped the toss from first baseman Munetaka Murakami, and the opening batter reached on the error. Martin recorded only two outs, charged with three runs — two earned — on three hits, a walk and a strikeout across seven batters faced.
After the error, Cole Carrigg singled, Hunter Goodman struck out, and TJ Rumfield delivered an RBI single to right. A walk to Connor Norby loaded the bases before Adael Amador's sharp grounder skipped past diving second baseman Sam Antonacci for a two-run single and a 3-0 Rockies lead. Martin called his outing a failure for not setting the tone, and manager Will Venable said the early error put his starter in a bind before turning to reliever Noah Schultz.
The teams traded home runs from there. Brenton Doyle went deep in the second to make it 3-1. Goodman and Luisangel Acuña exchanged solo shots in the third, with Acuña connecting off Colorado starter Jose Quintana, before Ezequiel Tovar's fourth-inning homer off Schultz restored a three-run cushion. Chicago scored once in the seventh to pull within 5-3 but repeatedly missed with runners on base — Randal Grichuk popped out with two aboard to end the fifth, Colson Montgomery struck out with two on in the sixth, Murakami's deep fly died on the warning track in the seventh, and Montgomery grounded into a double play after a Chase Meidroth double and Kyle Teel single in the eighth.
Colorado put the result away with four runs in the ninth, three on a Goodman homer for a 9-3 advantage. Andrew Benintendi answered with a three-run blast in the bottom half, but the rally fell short. Venable credited his team's competitive spirit while acknowledging it came up a few key hits shy, and third baseman Miguel Vargas said the focus shifts to what comes next rather than the division that slipped away.
Meidroth, who had been managing left hamstring soreness, said the club has bounced back from tough losses all season and will do the same heading into the postseason. The White Sox finish the regular season Sunday before turning their attention to the wild-card round.
Colorado visits Chicago for the regular-season finale Sunday, September 27, at 3:10 PM EDT at Rate Field, airing on MLB.TV, Rockies.TV and CHSN.
Games to watch
