COLSON MONTGOMERY JUST BLEW THIS ONE OPEN: White Sox Flex, Push AL Central Lead to 3.5 Games
CHICAGO — Forget the rain delay. Colson Montgomery was worth the wait.
The White Sox slugger launched his 26th homer — a three-run bomb to right — to cap a four-run third inning, and Chicago held off the Cleveland Guardians 5-3 on Sunday to keep stacking wins in the AL Central race.
Munetaka Murakami and Randal Grichuk each doubled in a run, and Montgomery's laser turned a 2-2 game into a 5-2 cushion. The Sox never looked back.
This was Chicago's second straight victory, pushing their lead over second-place Detroit to 3 1/2 games. Cleveland and Minnesota are now four back. For a franchise that was the AL's punching bag at 60-102 last season, the turnaround is officially ridiculous.
Debut with drama
The game was paused for 2 hours, 23 minutes after the first inning with Cleveland up 2-1, forcing both starters — Davis Martin and Joey Cantillo — out before the real action began.
Enter Hagen Smith, the White Sox lefty making his major league debut. The kid didn't get the cleanest welcome: two scoreless innings, but also a bases-loaded walk in the third. No panic. Brayan Rocchio lined out to third, and the threat evaporated.
Smith (1-0) got the win. His line wasn't pretty. His poise was.
Cleveland wouldn't go quietly. Trevor Richards, the sixth Chicago reliever of the afternoon, made things interesting in the ninth: two walks, a José Ramírez sacrifice fly, one run allowed. Still, Richards locked it down, earning his third career save and first of the season.
Bullpen roulette
Cleveland's bullpen didn't have the same magic. Tim Herrin started in relief after the delay, then Craig Yoho entered with two outs in the third. Yoho (2-1) couldn't find the zone — four runs, two hits, and four walks in just one out of work. Montgomery made him pay.
Steven Kwan had two hits for the Guardians (58-61), who've now lost five of six. Kwan and Murakami both stretched their on-base streaks to 25 games, the longest active run in the majors. Individual accolades are cool. The standings, not so much for Cleveland.
Brenton Doyle chipped in two hits for a White Sox team that now has 61 wins — one more than all of last season. August hasn't even ended. Let that sink in.
What's next
The Guardians head to Detroit to face the Tigers on Tuesday: Tanner Bibee (4-11, 3.85 ERA) vs. Drew Anderson (4-4, 4.01).
The White Sox are back home against Cincinnati, with Sean Burke (7-6, 3.08 ERA) getting the ball against lefty Nick Lodolo (3-2, 4.60).
Right now, the South Side is boiling — and Montgomery is the heat source.