CLEVELAND – The last time the White Sox faced the Guardians and their ace rookie Parker Messick at Progressive Field, a Tommy Pham three-run homer was the only damage they could muster in a 6-3 loss.
In a 3-0 victory to open up their best-of-five American League Division Series showdown against the AL Central champions on Saturday, Sox pitching flattened the Guardians’ offense enough to make three runs look like plenty, even after an initially apparent Pham three-run blast in the sixth evaporated into an odd-looking double play.
After a combined 1-for-17 showing in the Wild Card series versus Houston, close friends Miguel Vargas and Munetaka Murakami bested those contributions in the fourth alone. Murakami followed a sharp leadoff single from Vargas by swatting an elevated Parker Messick sinker on the inner-third 440 feet to the outer reaches of the right field concourse to stake the White Sox to a 2-0 lead they never relinquished.
Batting in the ninth spot as he has all postseason to this point, Colson Montgomery added insurance with his second seeing-eye grounder of the day in the seventh. Facing fellow lefty Erik Sabrowski, Montgomery softly poked a grounder down the third-base line against a Guardians defense playing him to pull. Kyle Teel raced all the way around from first as Cleveland’s defense scrambled in pursuit.
Hagen Smith’s start mirrored his scoreless three innings last round against Houston for the first eight outs. But as he was a strike away from finishing off the third in less than 40 total pitches, he lost his control and issued three straight walks. Bryan Hudson engineered an escape by inducing a full-count fly out from outfielder Chase DeLauter, but a similar jam emerged in the fourth.
Jordan Hicks struck out the first two hitters before allowing a two-out walk to pinch-hitter Nathaniel Lowe. When Anthony Kay emerged to face fellow lefty Travis Bazzana, he allowed a double, and walked Austin Hedges to load the bases before getting Brayan Rocchio to softly line out to right and strand three Guardians baserunners again. Cleveland only enjoyed three at-bats with runners in scoring position.
It certainly looked like Tommy Pham had added some cushion when a fly ball sizzled off his bat at 106.1 mph with two runners on in the sixth, and both Pham and Miguel Vargas reacted in kind. But a stiff wind knocked it down enough for Angel Martinez to make a leaping catch at the left field wall — which held up on a replay challenge. Vargas was easily doubled off first while Pham stood flabbergasted at how a ball he struck so cleanly produced such a result.