The White Sox answered a bruising weekend stumble with a slugfest Tuesday night, beating the Royals 14-11 at Kauffman Stadium and pushing their September surge into a three-game winning streak. Miguel Vargas, the reigning American League Player of the Week, offered the clubhouse line for a club that has kept finding its way back: “It’s the 2026 White Sox. We don’t give up.”
Key takeaways
- Chicago moved to 81 victories, assuring its first .500-or-better finish since 2022.
- The White Sox hit four home runs, their ninth game this season with at least four long balls.
- Chase Meidroth drove in five runs, while Randal Grichuk collected four hits and narrowly missed the cycle.
- Munetaka Murakami hit his 33rd homer in the seventh inning, helping lift the club total to 203.
- Chicago remained one game behind Cleveland in the AL Central after the Guardians beat Boston 3-2.
A lineup that kept swinging
Tuesday opened a six-game closing stretch that feels like October before October: three games in Kansas City followed by three at home against the Rockies. The White Sox did not need to manufacture much against the Royals. They brought thunder from throughout the lineup, with Meidroth, Brenton Doyle, Grichuk and Murakami all leaving the yard.
Meidroth’s five RBIs led the damage. Grichuk went 4-for-4 hits and came within one triple of completing the cycle. His seventh-inning double nearly turned into the missing three-base hit, but Royals center fielder Kyle Isbel made a diving attempt and trapped the ball.
Murakami’s seventh-inning blast was his 33rd of the season, one more marker in a year when Chicago has repeatedly found offense when it needed it most. The four-homer outburst raised the White Sox to 203 home runs as a team.
The response after the Tigers loss
The win carried extra weight after Friday’s 11-8 loss to Detroit, when Chicago let both a five-run lead and a six-run lead get away. Rather than linger over that one, the White Sox came back and won their next three games.
Vargas said the club’s approach is rooted in showing up for the next nine innings, regardless of what happened the night before. “We go the next day and play another nine innings,” he said. “We have to be ready the next day. I don’t think having a tough game affects us. Obviously we get mad, we get pissed, but we find a way to recover the next day and win the game.”
Chicago has improved by 21 games from last season and by 40 victories over the difficult 2024 campaign, when the club endured another 100-loss season. Still, the White Sox are looking beyond simply getting back to respectability. Their postseason position could be clinched as early as Wednesday, depending on the outcomes involving Houston and Texas.
Cleveland stood at 82-75 after its one-run win over the Red Sox, leaving the White Sox a game back in the division race. For Vargas and his teammates, though, the formula remains uncomplicated: play all 27 outs, turn the page, and keep pushing.
