6 takeaways from White Sox-Guardians: Brayan Rocchio, José Ramírez, Tommy Pham and Petey Halpin stand out as Guards take AL Central lead

· Yahoo Sports

CLEVELAND — Chris Getz has taken many flights to Cleveland over the course of his career, first as a player in the American League over parts of seven seasons and more recently as the general manager of the Chicago White Sox since 2023. But this time was different.

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On Monday morning, Getz traveled to northeast Ohio to watch the White Sox tackle an opportunity that seemed implausible at the outset of the season: a September clash with the Cleveland Guardians with first place in the AL Central on the line. 

“Flying in,” Getz said ahead of the series opener, “was much different than other trips I have felt through the years coming here.”

When the White Sox traveled to Cleveland last September, they were merely collateral damage amid the Guardians’ late surge, getting swept to fall to 57-93. This time, Chicago arrived as an equal main character in one of the marquee series remaining in the regular season. Just two years removed from overseeing a team that lost 121 games, Getz was gearing up for his ballclub to make a final push toward securing a playoff spot and perhaps a most unlikely division title.

“I think as a whole, we felt like we've been playing with house money,” Getz said. “And what a credit to this group where they didn't really care what anyone thought. I think the biggest lesson is they love to play with each other, they love to compete. They've got a high level of fearlessness that has carried us to where we are now.”

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But Getz acknowledged that the tone has shifted as the stakes have elevated down the stretch. And although the White Sox have had a share of first place since July 4, they started to stumble in September, going 4-10 across their last 14 games heading into the divisional showdown at Progressive Field.

“Obviously, when you're in this part of the schedule, and we have what we have at stake, maybe it's a little bit different of a feeling,” Getz said. “And it's our job to support these guys and remind them what got us here and get them back to playing with the freedom that we know they're capable of playing with.”

Early in Monday’s series opener, both teams struggled to do much offensively, the consequential circumstances seemingly evident in each unproductive at-bat across five scoreless innings. But Chicago broke through in the top of the sixth against Cleveland starter Gavin Williams, riding a rally sparked by a ridiculous, 18-pitch walk earned by rookie outfielder Tristan Peters and a throwing error from Guardians first baseman Nathaniel Lowe that clanged off Peters’ head as he ran to second base. A few more hits followed before All-Star Miguel Vargas punctuated the inning with a two-run blast to left field, his 31st long ball of his breakout season.

That made it 6-0 White Sox, a cushion comfortable enough for Chicago to cruise to a 7-3 victory. Crucially, the win secured Chicago the tiebreaker over Cleveland, which could prove paramount at season’s end. But the two games remaining still carried significant weight, as the Guardians had a chance to leapfrog the White Sox in the standings.

On Tuesday, Cleveland punched back. The Guardians jumped on White Sox opener Chris Murphy with first-inning homers from Jo Adell and Travis Bazzana before right-hander Davis Martin had even entered the game. The White Sox seized the lead back against the Cleveland bullpen in the middle frames, but the Guardians got the last laugh when Brayan Rocchio lofted a walk-off double over the head of left fielder Sam Antonacci, scoring two runs and snagging a dramatic 7-6 victory.

More drama unfolded Wednesday in the series finale. After Cleveland staked ace rookie left-hander Parker Messick a 2-0 lead in the third inning, Chicago responded with a go-ahead, three-run homer from veteran Tommy Pham in the top of the fifth, spoiling what was trending toward Messick’s latest gem. But once again, the Guardians found the requisite runs late, this time from an unlikely source in glove-first rookie outfielder Petey Halpin, who swatted a go-ahead homer of his own in the bottom of the sixth; that held en route to a 6-3 victory for Cleveland. With that, the Guardians overtook sole possession of first place in the AL Central for the first time since July 5. 

This week’s showing was a massive step toward a third straight division title for Cleveland, but this division is still up for grabs. The Guardians have just nine games remaining in the regular season, while the White Sox have 10. After an off day on Thursday, Cleveland will welcome the Athletics to Progressive Field for three games before finishing the regular season on the road in Boston and Kansas City. The White Sox return to Rate Field for a four-game set starting Thursday against the Tigers, followed by a trip to Kansas City and three games back home against Colorado. One of these teams will win the division and potentially earn a first-round playoff bye; the other will have to fight for a place in the AL wild-card field.

Here are six takeaways from this week’s series:

If Rocchio’s game-winning double off White Sox reliever Grant Taylor’s 101-mph fastball felt familiar, that’s not an accident. Tuesday’s script-flipping swing was an unlikely (and unfortunate) case of deja vu for Taylor, who served up a walk-off home run to Rocchio on July 2. These are the only two walk-offs Taylor has surrendered all season, as the 24-year-old right-hander has otherwise been dynamite, posting a 32.3% strikeout rate that ranks ninth among qualified relievers.

But Taylor is not alone in falling victim to Rocchio’s late-inning heroics. Tuesday marked Rocchio’s fourth walk-off hit of the season — the two against Taylor, plus a walk-off single against Kansas City in April and a homer to beat Detroit earlier this month — the most by any player in the majors. It was also the seventh walk-off hit of Rocchio’s career in his 426th game. That’s the same amount as his Cooperstown-bound teammate José Ramírez has produced but in 1,299 fewer contests. That’s just silly!

He hasn’t produced as many magic moments as Rocchio recently, but José Ramírez is still the most important player on this Guardians roster, and he has not been hitting like his usual self since returning from a hamate injury in late July. He appeared to be finding his footing in August, but Ramírez has been incredibly unproductive since the calendar flipped to September, hitting .113 over the first 13 games of the month with zero extra-base hits and just one walk. 

But Wednesday’s series finale offered tangible signs of progress for the superstar third baseman. It’s not just that Ramírez notched his first two extra-base hits of the month, including an RBI double down the left-field line to drive in an insurance run. It’s how hardRamírez hit the ball in those at-bats, batting right-handed against lefties Hagen Smith and Sean Newcomb; he hit a 106.8-mph double to the left-center-field gap off Smith and a 110.6-mph double off Newcomb into the left-field corner. 

Before Wednesday, Ramírez’s highest exit velocity recorded from either side of the plate since his return from injury was 106.2 mph, which was a groundout back on Aug. 1. And before his injury, Ramírez had recorded only one batted ball with an exit velocity higher than Wednesday’s showing, a 110.8-mph double way back on Opening Day. 

On Wednesday, Ramírez delivered the kind of swings that inspire optimism that he can reemerge as an impact player as the stakes continue to rise. It has been a strange year for the future Hall of Famer, as a relative nonfactor on another competitive Cleveland club, but there’s still time for him to make his mark on this season.

After spending the first five months of the season bouncing mostly around Triple-A with the Mets, Orioles and then Phillies, veteran outfielder Tommy Pham was traded to the White Sox on Aug. 31, and Chicago activated him when rosters expanded in September. But Pham recorded just one plate appearance — a pinch-hit in the ninth inning of a loss on Sept. 2 — before suffering a left calf strain that put him on the injured list.

The 38-year-old Pham, the oldest active position player in the majors, has slowly been working his way back since then, and he traveled with the team to Cleveland. Before the opener on Monday, White Sox manager Will Venable was asked if Pham could be activated this week, particularly with the Guardians slated to start lefties on Tuesday and Wednesday in Foster Griffin and Parker Messick.

“I don't think Tommy's going to be quite ready for that, to be honest,” Venable said. “He's making really good progress, but I would be shocked if he was ready for these games here against the Guardians.”

But after Tuesday’s loss, Pham saw Getz in the elevator at the hotel and let him know he was ready to roll, despite the training staff advising another couple days of rest and preparation. Getz took note, and Venable, seeking a right-handed boost in the rubber match, inserted Pham into the cleanup spot for his first start in the big leagues since April 26 with the Mets. 

In the first inning, Pham swung at a first-pitch fastball from Messick and grounded out. In the fourth, Pham was frozen on a heater right down the middle for a called strike three. But in their third encounter an inning later, Pham jumped on a first-pitch curveball and launched it 412 feet to left field for a go-ahead, three-run homer, stunning Progressive Field into silence — at least temporarily.

Ultimately, Pham’s shocking swing did not hold, as Cleveland conjured an arguably even more unlikely homer the next inning. But in a winding career already loaded with lore, we can add “talked his way off the injured list and into the cleanup spot for Chicago’s biggest game of the season — and then hit a go-ahead homer” to the fascinating chronicles of Tommy Pham. 

About that improbable Guardians homer. With outfielders Chase DeLauter and Angel Martinez battling nagging injuries, 24-year-old Petey Halpin earned the start in center field on Tuesday and Wednesday for Cleveland, elevated from his usual bench role centered on his speed and defense. It was especially rare to see Halpin start against a lefty in the series finale; the rookie had notched just one hit in 40 trips to the plate against southpaws this season. But such were the circumstances with Cleveland’s hampered personnel, so into the starting lineup Halpin went, batting eighth.

Leading off the bottom of the third, Halpin fought off a 98-mph sinker from Anthony Kay and blooped one into right field for a single. That base hit alone was an encouraging sign based on his porous history against southpaws, but the big swing came when Halpin strolled to the plate with two on and one out in the sixth against White Sox reliever Sean Newcomb, another tough left-hander.

After watching four four-seamers sail by to get to a 3-1 count, Halpin turned on a 94-mph sinker and sent it soaring to the right-field seats, where it crashed down for his fourth homer of the season and a 5-3 Guardians lead. It was the first home run Newcomb had allowed to a left-handed hitter all season.

Over the past three Septembers, the Guardians have produced a boatload of memorable moments such as this as they’ve surged to AL Central titles. There’s a lot more high-stakes baseball still ahead of them, but if this regular season ends with another division crown — and maybe more in October — you can be sure this Halpin swing will be replayed with regularity.

Last month, lefty Hagen Smith became the latest member of the vaunted 2024 draft class to reach the majors. Smith’s journey since being selected fifth overall out of Arkansas was not nearly as seamless as that of some of his fellow first-rounders — No. 1 pick Travis Bazzana and his two homer-game on Tuesday say hello — but that he was able to reach Chicago just two years after being selected speaks to the pure arm talent.

Smith spent his first full pro season piling up strikeouts in Double-A (108 across 75 ⅔ innings), but a ghastly number of walks (56) limited his overall effectiveness. He finished last year with a solid showing in the Arizona Fall League but struggled in Triple-A to begin 2026, again battling walks and yielding too much hard contact. But once he shifted to the bullpen in mid-July — a move many scouts foresaw even when Smith was dominating in the SEC, but not one the White Sox are committing to for the long haul — Smith started to roll. A few weeks later, he got the call to Chicago, and besides a walk-off homer surrendered to Pete Crow-Armstrong on Aug. 17, Smith has been nearly untouchable for the White Sox.

"He's done a phenomenal job in what we've asked him to do,” Getz said Monday. “Multi-inning opportunities to short stints to openers … I don't think he could be doing any better than he is right now.”

With two more scoreless innings on Monday, Smith’s line across nine outings since PCA’s walk-off looked like this: 17 ⅓ innings, 7 hits allowed, 0 runs allowed, 4 walks, 25 strikeouts. Then Wednesday brought another hiccup, as Smith’s command woes resurfaced at an inopportune time. After posting a scoreless fifth, Smith walked two batters in the sixth, both of whom would come around to score on Halpin’s homer. 

Still, for a White Sox team desperate for impact pitching at this critical stage of the season, Smith’s arrival has made a difference.

“When we were looking at the trade deadline … most of the improvements or the things that we're going to rely on are going to be internal players, and he was one of them,” Getz said. “He hadn't been called up to the big leagues yet, but we had been talking about it. And the transition — making that decision to bring him up and the transition to the bullpen — really couldn't have gone any better.”

For the first two months of the season, the White Sox appeared to have struck gold with Munetaka Murakami. It was remarkable enough that Murakami had landed with the White Sox over the winter on a two-year, $34 million deal, far below industry forecasts for the 26-year-old with an epic slugging track record in NPB. Then Murakami surged out of the gate, with homers in his first three MLB games and 20 through his first 55 contests, and it felt like the rest of the league had whiffed on a golden opportunity while Chicago reaped the benefits.

Then the flip side of Murakami’s exhilarating but volatile profile — one with severe swing-and-miss tendencies that many teams could not overlook — started to surface. When Murakami landed on the injured list due to a right hamstring strain at the end of May, there was concern that he wouldn’t be able to recapture his early-season impact upon his return. But the prolonged absence didn’t seem to derail Murakami, as he hit .223/.361/.521 with nine homers across his first 33 games after being activated on July 10. He also struck out at a 35% clip over that span, but the power production combined with a steady diet of free passes (17%) ensured that he remained a dangerous hitter.

Since mid-August, however, Murakami has failed to counterbalance the whiffs with enough slugging. He has spiraled into an ice-cold slump that is not especially shocking, considering his profile, but is rather untimely, considering what the White Sox are pushing for. Over his past 26 games, Murakami has hit .096/.248/.170 with just two home runs. While he has continued to draw walks, the hits have been staggeringly scarce, and Murakami’s strikeout rate has skyrocketed to 44%. After batting second since the start of May, Murakami moved down to the third spot in the batting order on Sept. 4 and to the cleanup spot a week later.

“I think, obviously, it's no secret that he hasn't been hitting the ball like he expects to, like we all expected from him, that we've seen in the past,” Venable said Monday.

After going 0-for-7 with seven strikeouts and two walks across the first two games of the series, Murakami was out of the starting lineup Wednesday. He entered the series finale in the fifth inning after Colson Montgomery was hit by a pitch and went 0-for-1 with a walk. 

“I can tell you, as far as the preparation, the work, his attitude, the type of teammate that he's being — it's 10 out of 10 across the board,” Venable added. “Just waiting for it to show up on the field.”

Murakami is talented enough to flip the switch and start punishing baseballs like he did earlier this season. And on the whole, it’s hard to consider his rookie season anything other than a success, no matter how it finishes. But the best version of the White Sox involves Murakami doing damage. And with October fast approaching — and a division title hanging in the balance — the team can’t wait much longer for him to get back on track. 

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