The White Sox did not linger in second place. Munetaka Murakami saw the first pitch from Framber Valdez, a high sinker, and sent it 423 feet to dead center. The three-run homer in the bottom of the first inning Thursday night at Rate Field gave Chicago all the runs it would need in a 3-1 victory over Detroit. That swing restored a tie atop the American League Central.
Chicago and Cleveland both sit at 78-75. The White Sox own the head-to-head edge from the season series. After Wednesday's 6-3 defeat in Cleveland had dropped them from first for the first time since July 3, Thursday's result evened the race again with nine games remaining.
Murakami had been scuffling badly. He entered the night 5-for-52 in September with 31 strikeouts. The homer was just his third in his last 28 games. He later added the first triple of his major-league career and went 2-for-4, raising his season total to a team-high 32 home runs.]
Starter Erick Fedde worked 4 2/3 innings and allowed the Tigers' only run on a Gleyber Torres fielder's choice in the third. The bullpen, including Bryan Hudson who earned the win and Grant Taylor who closed for his ninth save, kept Detroit scoreless the rest of the way. Chicago was outhit 8-5 but made the early lead stand. The Tigers fell to 72-81.
This is no ordinary September for the White Sox. The club is chasing a postseason berth after posting 100-loss seasons in each of the previous two years. No team in major-league history has ever qualified for October after consecutive 100-defeat campaigns. Chicago is attempting to become the first.]
The stakes are immediate and franchise-sized. The Central winner would claim the American League's No. 2 seed and a first-round bye under the current playoff format. With the White Sox holding the tiebreaker, Thursday's win put them in position for that prize if the standings hold. The victory also created a two-game cushion over the Rangers and Blue Jays for the last wild-card spot.
The remaining stretch includes three more games against these Tigers, then Kansas City and Colorado. Every result now carries the weight of a club trying to rewrite its recent history after years of losing. Rate Field has seen plenty of empty nights. Thursday offered a different kind of tension, the kind that comes when a long rebuild suddenly has something real to play for in the final weeks.
Murakami's first-pitch swing did more than produce three runs. It pulled a surprising team even in a division race that will decide seeding, rest, and perhaps the shape of October itself. The White Sox have nine games left to see if the turnaround holds.