CLEVELAND — The Chicago White Sox had been in this position before — down, but not out.
The Sox trailed the Cleveland Guardians by two runs in the sixth inning of the win-or-go-home Game 5 of the American League Division Series. But they had the bases loaded with two outs and their cleanup hitter Munetaka Murakami coming to the plate.
The first baseman worked a 2-2 count before striking out against Guardians reliever Erik Sabrowski.
The Sox couldn’t find sustained success at the plate all night as their improbable season ended with a 2-0 loss to the Guardians on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 36,889 at Progressive Field.
“We are sitting in disappointment, obviously, and it hurts not to be able to advance here,” manager Will Venable said. “That’s what we came to do. So we’re not just happy that we got here. We understand what it takes to get here and have more clarity on what it’s going to take the next time around to go even further.
“At the same time, you do zoom out and look at what this group accomplished and what they did to bring baseball back to White Sox and the pride back to the organization and then really the city. It’s just amazing what these guys did.”
They ran into some dominant pitching on Saturday.
The Sox didn’t have a hit until two outs in the sixth, when Kyle Teel singled to right field against Guardians starter Gavin Williams. They finished with three hits and struck out 21 times — the most in a nine-inning regular season or postseason major-league game.
“I thought it was less about chase and more about being attacked in the zone and swing-and-miss in the zone,” Venable said. “Those guys are really, really good. I think they made some nice adjustments, and obviously Gavin, whatever he did a couple days ago (pitching the ninth inning on Thursday), it didn’t impact him. He was as crisp as we’ve seen him.”
The Sox struck out 52 times over the final three games.
“They were executing their pitches,” shortstop Colson Montgomery said. “Got us to chase a little bit, get away from our game plan. That’s kind of where if you fall into that trap, it’s where they get you. We’ve shown this year when we don’t fall into that trap, we pretty much dominate the game and execute what we need to do.
“The first two games, it’s what we did. We did a lot of really good things. They were executing pretty good and got us off our game.”
José Ramírez supplied Cleveland’s offense on Saturday, hitting a two-run home run in the fourth inning as the Guardians advanced to the AL Championship Series to play the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Sox were unable to close the door after holding a two-game lead in the best-of-five series. The Guardians won three straight elimination games, ending the Sox’s season.
“It’s obviously disappointing,” Murakami said through an interpreter. “My intent was to win this game, fly to Tampa for another series. It’s just really disappointing that we lost.
“We’re still a very young team. We have to learn from our experience here and bring that to next year.”
Saturday served as the final page of a year that began with the Sox looking to take steps forward after three straight 100-loss seasons, including a modern-day major-league record 121 in 2024.
They made a giant leap, returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2021. And then they won a postseason series for the first time since the 2005 World Series by sweeping the Houston Astros in the AL wild-card series.
“I feel like we proved we’re a good team,” Sox starter Sean Burke said. “This is something we believed in spring and we believed throughout the season when people were doubting us and saying this wasn’t sustainable or this is a fluke. I think we proved to other people that this is for real and that this is a good baseball team.
“And more importantly, we proved to ourselves we could do this. Obviously not the result we hoped for in this series, but this core will be together for a little bit. And as sad as it is now that the season’s over, there’s so much bright spots to look forward to and such a good future to look forward to for the White Sox.”
They were on the verge of their first ALCS appearance since 2005 by winning the first two games in Cleveland. But the rest of the series belonged to the Guardians, with Ramírez playing a prominent role. He had two home runs and seven RBIs over the last three games.
He had the big hit again Saturday in a night that was otherwise all about the pitching.
Burke allowed two runs on four hits with four strikeouts and no walks in five innings. Williams allowed one hit, struck out 12, walked two and hit one batter in 5 2/3 innings.
As rain fell early, Burke and Williams kept pouring in strikes.
Williams struck out 11 of the first 16 Sox batters. Burke — aided by some smooth defense from Murakami — retired the first nine Guardians batters.
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Steven Kwan’s single to begin the bottom of the fourth inning was the first hit of the game for either team. Ramírez then hit a liner that landed just over the right-field wall for the two-run home run.
“If I could have walked up there and placed a pitch where I wanted it, I don’t think I would have changed where I threw it,” Burke said. “He’s a really good player, he’s probably going to end up in the Hall of Fame some day and it was a good swing by him. As frustrating as it is, you can tip the cap to him.”
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The Sox had just one base runner through the first five innings, a walk in the second by Tristan Peters. But the sixth began on a good note for the Sox when Montgomery got hit by a pitch.
Williams retired the next two hitters before Teel singled to right on an 0-1 knuckle curve. Miguel Vargas walked to load the bases.
Sabrowski replaced Williams and struck out Murakami in a five-pitch at-bat, ending one of the few big opportunities of the evening for the Sox.
The Sox brought the tying run to the plate with fewer than two outs in the seventh and eighth, but came up empty as their journey came to an end.
“It’s just amazing what these guys did,” Venable said. “So very proud of our group. The way that they did it, too, in coming to the ballpark every day excited.
“I told those guys after the game, this was easily the most fun that I’ve had in all my years in Major League Baseball, and it’s because of the personalities in that room, the character of the group, and they went out there every day, fought and did things the right way.”
Burke described the group as his “brothers.”
“We took this, I don’t know what the media or whatever had for us to make the playoffs at the start of the year, but I know it was a long shot,” Burke said. “This group just put that aside, continued to fight every day.
“I’ve played on a lot of teams in my life, I think this is my favorite team I’ve ever played on. This is the most special group I’ve ever been part of.”