White Sox roll over Guardians with six-run sixth inning

CLEVELAND — The unmistakable odor of a skunk wafted through the air at Progressive Field late in the opener of a big three-game Central Division series between the Guardians and White Sox on Monday night. It was appropriate for Cleveland, because it was undoubtedly a stinker. A throwing error on first baseman Nathaniel Lowe touched off a disastrous sixth inning for the Guardians, who allowed six runs in the inning and fell 7-3. With the game scoreless and a chance to take over first place for the first time since July 3, the Guardians instead imploded and now find themselves trailing Chicago by 1½ games. The White Sox clinched the season series against Cleveland for the first time since 2023. "This team's not going to get down by one loss," said manager Stephen Vogt. "We have two more in this series. We know what we're up against, and we know that there's an 11-game sprint to the end, and we can only take care of one at a time. This team hasn't let one loss get them down yet. I don't expect that to happen now." The series of unfortunate events began with Gavin Williams on the mound and a grounder right at Lowe, whose throw to second base to start a potential double play, bounced off the back of Tristan Peters' helmet and allowed the first run of the game to score. "It happens. We've seen it twice already this year, one in our favor and one not, but it does happen," Vogt said. "I haven't seen a replay but I'm guessing Peters took a good outside route to second base, which you're supposed to do, and unfortunately it just bounced off his head." Peters reached on an 18-pitch walk that chased Williams, who threw a career-high 113 pitches. It was the longest plate appearance in the majors this season and third-longest since 2000 — tied for the fifth-longest at-bat in the pitch-count era, beginning in 1988. "I counted at one point, but I just stopped counting when it was getting up there," Williams said. "Those at-bats are frustrating, but props to him the way he did that. I don't think I've ever thrown an at-bat that long." "You see 18 pitches and work a walk. It was an unbelievable at-bat by both of them," Vogt said. "Gavin kept executing and Peters kept fouling them off. It was two very good players going at it. It was entertaining to say the least, but it obviously got Gavin's pitch count way up." The White Sox scored five more times in the inning, two on a double from Kyle Teel off Tim Herrin, and three on a home run from Miguel Vargas off Daniel Espino. "They were able to just keep it going," Vogt said of the White Sox. "It looked like Daniel just a missed a fastball over the middle to Vargas. We got ourselves into trouble that inning and they took advantage of it." The Guardians had seven hits and only four through the first six innings, scoring their first run when White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery dropped a pop up from Jose Ramirez. A leadoff double from Travis Bazzana down the third-base line in the seventh went for naught after White Sox reliever Hagen Smith struck out Angel Martinez, pinch hitter David Fry and Patrick Bailey. Fry' two-run homer in the ninth provided the final count. Williams struck out seven and allowed only a run on four hits through five innings. He got of a bases-loaded jam to keep the game scoreless in the fourth by striking out Braden Montgomery. "Gavin was awesome, pitching out of that jam in the fourth," Vogt said. "Gavin made some unbelievable pitches when he needed to. They did a nice job. It looked like they made a little bit of an adjustment, looking for spin the second time through (the order), but Gavin kept them off the board. They made him throw a lot of pitches, but I thought Gavin was outstanding." "Obviously, I could have done more than what I did, but it is what it is," Williams said. Martinez left the game prior to the eighth inning with what the Guardians announced as right flank inflammation. He reacted after an awkward swing before striking out in the seventh. "We pulled Angel out of a precaution. He's got some right-side soreness," Vogt said. "We'll know more tomorrow. It was my decision to take him out. With the game sitting where we were I didn't want something weird to happen and make it worse." Cleveland wasn't hurt in the in the wild card race. With Toronto's loss, the Guardians still lead the Blue Jays by a game for the American League's final postseason berth. "It's just one game. You play 162 for a reason," Williams said. "We got two weeks left. Every game's big. It doesn't matter if it's No. 1 or 162. Every game matters." Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.