Historic White Sox walk-off has Guardians fans officially sweating AL Central

For a majority of the past three years, the Cleveland Guardians have always been able to hold their good vibes over the head of the Chicago White Sox. 

But that changed this week. At Progressive Field, the Guardians had arguably their worst series of the year and were swept by the New York Yankees. Meanwhile, at Rate Field, the White Sox swept the NL-East leading Braves in a series highlighted by Braden Montgomery’s becoming the fifth player to hit a walk-off home run in their MLB debut. 

While the Guardians were stumbling all over themselves against the Judge-less Yankees, the White Sox took things to the Braves and ended up taking over the division lead thanks to their 2-1 win on Wednesday. 

Even though there’s still a lot of season left to be played, this week all but confirmed the White Sox are going to be a part of the AL Central picture all year. 

The White Sox have passed the Guardians in the American League Central

Not much went right for the Guardians in that series against the Yankees. They went 3-for-38 with runners in scoring position and left 30 runners on base, the big names in the bullpen faltered and Parker Messick looked pedestrian in the series finale. 

Last week the Guardians seemed to make a clear statement with their series win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. But all those good vibes officially disappeared when the Yankees started their postgame celebration at a muggy Progressive Field on Wednesday afternoon. 

Not only did that loss push the White Sox to the top of the American League Central, but it also marked the first time Clevleand had been swept in a series since it happened at the hands of the Rangers in August 2024. 

While the White Sox sweep of the Braves would be impressive no matter what, it reached a new level thanks to Montogmery’s walk-off on Tuesday followed by their close win on Wednesday. 

As Jazz Chisholm Jr. was silencing Progressive Field on Tuesday night, Montgomery was running around the bases at Rate Field with fireworks going off behind him. Talk about a juxtaposition. 

“It's going to be a tough division. We know that,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said earlier this week. “We just have to take care of our stuff. We can't control what everybody else does. We were a testament to that last year.”

Although the White Sox have been lingering behind the Guardians all season, their hot start didn’t seem sustainable due to the number of young and unproven players they have on their roster. 

But now those young players have pushed them past the Guardians in the American League Central. 

The Guardians are still the clear favorite in the division (53.4% chance to win the division, per FanGraphs), but Chicago taking the lead in the division made an already bad week worse.

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