Chicago has waited through three 100-loss seasons for a night like Wednesday. Now the White Sox return to Rate Field with a 2-0 American League Division Series lead over the Guardians, one victory from their first trip to the AL Championship Series since 2005 and ready to give Cleveland a postseason welcome that figures to be loud from the first pitch.
A ballpark ready to turn the volume up
Game 3 is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET, 3 p.m. local time, with TBS, truTV, UniMas and HBO Max carrying the game. It will be Chicago’s first home postseason date after a stretch that included the worst modern-era season on record in 2024.
Guardians players have already been discussing the atmosphere awaiting them. One Cleveland player compared the coming reception to Philadelphia’s famously hostile home crowds and suggested Chicago might have the edge. A White Sox player, hearing that comparison, laughed at the reversal: Sox players had once been the target of that same frustration.
The change has arrived faster than almost anyone around the club expected. Chicago entered the season with only a 1.1 percent chance to make the playoffs, yet it is now two wins into October and closing in on the American League pennant series.
- The White Sox lead the best-of-five ALDS, 2-0.
- Game 3 is Wednesday at Rate Field in Chicago.
- Chicago is seeking its first ALCS berth since its 2005 championship run.
- The home crowd is returning to October baseball after three consecutive 100-plus-loss campaigns.
An underdog roster built from every direction
Manager Will Venable sees a common thread in a clubhouse full of players who were not always celebrated as future stars. He said the club carries an underdog edge, with players eager to show they belong in the majors and can be impact performers once they get there.
That identity matters because this was not a rebuild powered solely by a farm system overflowing with blue-chip names. Chicago’s system was ranked 11th entering the final stages of 2024, rose to sixth before the 2025 season, then slipped to 17th roughly a year ago as prospects graduated. Those rankings can shift quickly, but they did not forecast contention arriving at this speed.
Instead, the White Sox found value through trades, player development, the Draft and a major international signing.
- Miguel Vargas arrived from the Dodgers in the mid-2024 trade that sent Michael Kopech to Los Angeles. Vargas, a Cuban defector, had been a Top 100 prospect in the Dodgers organization.
- Chicago acquired Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery, both Top 100 prospects, from Boston in the December 2024 Garrett Crochet deal.
- Chase Meidroth, ranked 11th in Boston’s system at the time of that trade, has become the most productive major leaguer from the package so far. The 2022 fourth-round pick produced 4.5 fWAR this season while adding power, putting more balls in the air and improving against left-handed pitching.
- Outfielder Tristan Peters came over from Tampa Bay last winter in a cash transaction and proceeded to make the All-Star team as Chicago’s center fielder.
- Munetaka Murakami became the club’s biggest free-agent addition after a projected bidding frenzy never fully developed. Other clubs worried about his swing-and-miss tendencies, while Chicago saw a chance to add game-changing power.
Draft picks have met the moment
The Sox have received help from both their early selections and the less-heralded rounds. Shortstop Colson Montgomery, the 22nd overall pick in 2021, has become a fixture in the middle of the diamond. Hagen Smith, drafted fifth overall in 2024, made an immediate impact after reaching the majors in August. Noah Schultz, selected 26th in 2022, made the postseason roster in his first big league season.
Just as important, Chicago’s depth has not stopped at the top of the board.
- Left fielder Sam Antonacci, taken in the fifth round out of Coastal Carolina two years ago, delivered an impressive rookie campaign.
- Sean Burke, a third-round selection in 2021, led a trio of homegrown arms that paced the White Sox staff in fWAR.
- Davis Martin, chosen in the 14th round in 2018, ranked among Chicago’s three most valuable pitchers by fWAR this year.
- Grant Taylor, a second-round pick in 2023, joined Burke and Martin atop that pitching group.
Assistant general manager Josh Barfield said nobody in the organization expected the turnaround to move quite this quickly. He credited a group that bought into the work, pointing to trades and Draft decisions that sped up the process. The young players, he said, have arrived in the majors without looking overwhelmed by the stage.
Chicago’s chance to keep pressing forward
Taylor put the club’s approach plainly: once a player gets an opportunity, he has to make it count. The White Sox have carried that mindset through the regular season, into the postseason and now into a series where the World Series remains the goal.
Wednesday will bring the first real October roar to Rate Field in years. The White Sox did not build this contender in one obvious sweep, nor did every key piece arrive with superstar billing. But the trades, late-round picks, development wins and overlooked acquisitions have landed together at the right time.
The Guardians know what is waiting. Chicago knows why the building will be shaking.
