If you thought the division-leading Braves and Dodgers were going to put the White Sox in their place before they visited Rate Field, you weren’t alone. An at-best .500 record on the six-game homestand could have been seen as a moral victory, with lessons learned at the feet of baseball’s best.
But after the Sox beat the Dodgers 6-4 on Sunday to go 4-1 on the abbreviated homestand, the only ones learning lessons are the doubters. The Sox keep checking off boxes for being considered a serious playoff contender, and they have another chance this week against another first-place team, the Yankees.
‘‘I think you should stop thinking of this as a surprise just because we’re consistently winning [and] we’re consistently in every game,’’ said shortstop Colson Montgomery, who hit one of three home runs in a six-run sixth inning. ‘‘It doesn’t matter what team it is, we’re going to go out there and just try to play our ball. I think those days are kind of over.’’
These days, the Sox are winning in all kinds of ways. On this day, it was with not one but two openers before usual starter Erick Fedde took over in the fourth. You might as well call it a bullpen game because Fedde’s 2⅔ innings were the most among the five pitchers used.
Fedde, who experienced much of the 2024 Sox’ misery en route to their major-league-record 121 losses, said he thought things were different with this Sox team in spring training.
‘‘We looked around and thought, ‘This is a team that has a lot of talent,’ ’’ he said. ‘‘Obviously, going out there and proving it is a completely different thing, but the guys in here aren’t shocked. And I think the way we’ve been playing [against] this stretch of quality opponents, I guess we’re putting the league a little bit more on notice.’’
And they continue to do it without their leading home-run hitter, Munetaka Murakami. Even more surprising, they’re scoring more runs without him. Before Murakami left the game May 29 with a hamstring injury, the Sox were averaging 4.7 runs per game. In the 14 games he has missed, they’ve averaged 5.3.
Sam Antonacci and Chase Meidroth also homered in the sixth. Antonacci’s led off the inning, and it was his first that went over the wall. Like Montgomery’s, Meidroth’s was a two-run shot. The other run came on a double by Andrew Benintendi.
The first six batters in the inning reached, the first three of whom got a third look at Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan, who had been rolling, holding the Sox to one hit and striking out eight through five innings. Montgomery said that made a difference.
‘‘[Our coaches] kept telling us to stick with our game plan, stick with our approach, keep scrapping out at-bats,’’ he said. ‘‘Because [Sheehan] was dealing there. We just had a feeling that if we stayed with it, we were going to get to him.’’
The victory wasn’t without a palpitation in the ninth, when closer Seranthony Dominguez brought the go-ahead run to the plate. With runners on first and third and two outs, Dominguez fanned Freddie Freeman to end it.
‘‘I think every series win, these guys continue to gain confidence, certainly against a good team,’’ manager Will Venable said. ‘‘It’s important; it matters to be able to secure that one today. But these guys I don’t think necessarily need that type of opponent to get confidence. It’s a series win, and that’s the most important thing.’’
Now it’s on to New York, where the Sox are scheduled to face Gerrit Cole on Tuesday and former Sox left-hander Carlos Rodon on Wednesday. The Yankees are another box for the Sox to check — though they won’t have injured slugger Aaron Judge.
‘‘We know we have another good one coming up here in New York,’’ Venable said. ‘‘So we’ve got to enjoy this one on a happy flight for these guys, we’ve got an off-day and then [we] get back to business.’’