CLEVELAND — Pictures of happier moments from the season hung up along the tunnel to the visitors’ dugout, a loud thud of someone taking out their frustration on a wall after Tuesday night’s walk-off loss, Tommy Pham accelerating his return from the injured list with a literal elevator pitch to general manager Chris Getz.
The issue is not these individual actions, but the wounds in the White Sox playoff pursuits to which they’re responding, which remained on display in a 6-3 loss at Progressive Field that knocked them out of first place — by a half-game — in the American League Central for the first time since Independence Day.
“A tough series; I think that’s a good characterization of that one,” said manager Will Venable.
Pham was signed simply to hit left-handed pitching, which the 38-year-old proved he can still provide with a thunderous, go-ahead three-run blast off Guardians ace Parker Messick in the fifth inning on Wednesday. The larger problem is that the Sox lineup has ached for right-handed balance because Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery have ceased being everyday middle-of-the-order forces in the second half.
Tommy Pham turns the tide with a HUGE 3-run homer 💪 pic.twitter.com/5MRpw9vt4b
— MLB (@MLB) September 16, 2026
“We ended up losing, man, so it’s pointless,” Pham said of his homer.
Expressions of postgame frustration are natural, and the cost of playing games in September that matter deeply. The larger problem is even for an overhauled White Sox team, it’s become familiar in the ballpark, where the fourth-worst offense in MLB has walked off the Sox three times this year, before rallying for four sixth-inning runs — all with two outs — off Sean Newcomb; a rock of the team’s bullpen all year long.
“I haven’t been myself,” said Newcomb, scored upon in five of his last six outings. “Just not being super crisp, hitters being more in tune with what I’m doing. It’s just part of it. There’s ups and downs throughout the season, it just sucks it’s coming now.”
As promised, Venable managed his pitchers with playoff intensity, dancing on the border between proactive, and overcooking it. In the wake of four-straight poor starts, Anthony Kay had anticipated getting pulled before facing Cleveland’s lineup a third time, even with his velocity up and the two runs he allowed in four innings being unearned due to a freak Chase Meidroth error was the ball was knocked out of his glove on a tag.
But the shorter start had Venable pursuing a second inning from Hagen Smith, who threw two innings in the series opener. So, the Sox manager blamed himself for the two walks Smith issued that Newcomb couldn’t clean up.
Facilitating a relaxed atmosphere is one of Will Venable’s central accomplishments. The larger problem beyond the photos, or reports of another jovial pregame hitters meeting on Wednesday, is they’re aimed at restoring a looseness that’s been evaporating whenever the White Sox have runners in scoring position.
After a 1-for-8 showing on Wednesday, the Sox are 14-for-72 with runners in scoring position (.194) over their last nine games, and 3-for-14 with the bases loaded. The one hit came from Pham.
“It’s a team sport, but also a lot of stuff is individual,” Pham said of the RISP struggles. “Everybody has to look at themselves individually, and evaluate.”
If the White Sox evaluate, they have 10 games left, are even with division-leading Cleveland in the loss column, and are in possession of a tiebreaker and a relatively soft closing schedule.
They also have a high-power, low-contact offense that’s tilting toward the latter trait in crucial moments, their heavily-used bullpen cornerstones are faltering, and are depending on rookie David Sandlin in the rotation this week, because trade deadline headliner Luis Castillo has pitched his way out of their immediate plans.
As vital as this series in Cleveland was, what lies ahead is now even more crucial.
“We knew that this series wasn’t going to define how the end of this year goes for us,” Venable said. “Tough to not have that lead, but at the same time, we’ve got a long ways to go here. A lot can happen.”