Chicago White Sox: The American League is down to four teams
The Chicago White Sox are officially one of the final four teams in the American League. The Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays, and Boston Red Sox are officially there with them. It became that way after the Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees in Tuesday night’s Wild Card Game. It was an incredibly fun game to watch as fans of baseball because this is still the best rivalry in the game.
The game started off with a very interesting first inning. Giancarlo Stanton hit one that looked like it was going 500 feet. Even the announcers on multiple different broadcasts thought it was gone but it ended up clanking off the Green Monster. It ended up just being a really long single that led to nothing.
Later in the inning, when the Red Sox came to bat, Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run home run to give the Red Sox the lead. That lead would hold and the Red Sox took the game by a final score of 6-2. Kyle Schwarber, Alex Verdugo, Kike Hernandez, and Rafael Devers were also huge offensively for them as they all had big games at the plate in one way or another.
Nathan Eovaldi was amazing for Boston on the mound. If the White Sox somehow played against them at some point in the postseason, he is someone that would be tough to face when the stakes are the highest. The Red Sox bullpen usually isn’t the best but Ryan Brasier, Tanner Houck, Hansel Robles, and Garrett Whitlock were all outstanding for Boston against the Yankees in relief for Eovaldi.
As for the Yankees, Gerrit Cole was awful. The 324 million dollar man has not lived up to his postseason expectations at all so far. He went 2.0 innings where he gave up three runs on four hits and three walks before he was pulled.
On the offensive side of things, Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton each hit big home runs but those two solo shots were all the Yankees were able to muster up. Stanton also had the two big hits off the monster (he added a second one besides the one in the first) but they didn’t lead to anything either.
In fact, the second one led to Aaron Judge getting thrown out at home which killed the rally that they were building when it was 3-1. The Yankees’ decision to send him home on the play will be discussed for weeks as the postseason goes on. It was clearly the turning point of the game as the Red Sox took back the momentum that the Yankees were starting to take.
The Chicago White Sox and the rest of the American League looks very dangerous.
Now, the Red Sox will play the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS. The winner of that series will play the winner of the White Sox vs Astros series in the ALCS. Of course, for the White Sox, they are going to play a great team no matter what the rest of the way.