A little over a week ago, the Cleveland Guardians were riding high. They’d just come back from a 2-0 deficit to beat the White Sox in Game 5 of the ALDS, and their social media team put a lot of effort into trolling at Chicago’s expense. I personally have no love lost between the Guardians and their fans after I’ve had them in my mentions all week, so seeing their downfall just a week later is extra satisfying.
Coming soon to the South Side.#GuardsBall | #StandGuard pic.twitter.com/vbumSrWFkF
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) October 11, 2026
The Guardians may have felt like a team of destiny when they took Game 1 with a late rally behind Parker Messick, and came from behind again in Game 3 after Petey Halpin’s improbable home run. But the Rays reminded everyone who the better team is over the last three days, taking Games 4 and 6 by a score of 7-3 and riding a dominant outing from ace Drew Rasmussen to a 3-1 victory in Game 5. With the series loss, the Guardians continue MLB’s longest World Series drought, having not won a championship since 1948, when the US president was Harry S. Truman and Alaska and Hawaii had not yet become US states.
Guardians loss doesn't take away White Sox collapse, but it doesn't hurt
From a White Sox perspective, the Guardians loss doesn’t make the end of the ALDS hurt any less. The White Sox were just one win away from getting their own shot at taking on the Rays, but the offense that carried them all season long faltered in Game 5, and the bullpen finally felt the effects of heavy usage down the stretch. The Guardians had every right to celebrate, and even troll the White Sox in that moment, but it’s surely a bad look after their season came to an end just over a week later. It seems like this could be the beginning of a long-standing rivalry between the two teams.
Cleveland and Chicago have played each other since 1901, with the White Sox holding a narrow 1,144-1,140 edge in the all-time series. The Guardians have been in the White Sox’ division since the AL Central was created back in 1994. For the majority of those years, however, the White Sox weren’t really relevant. But the new regime and soon-to-be new ownership in Chicago could be the start of that changing. The Guardians have excelled at player– particularly pitcher– development in the past few years, and they’ve done a nice job of making themselves contenders for the division more often than they aren’t. The White Sox believe their new player development system will put them in the same conversation moving forward. It doesn’t seem like this rivalry is going away anytime soon.
I genuinely hope for the best for Guardians fans and that they don’t take this loss too hard. After all, they have to watch the Cleveland Browns play football on Sundays, so they’ve got bigger problems than continuing to brag about the fact that they got to play six more games than the White Sox and won the same trophy. I’d suggest that the White Sox win the series next year if they don’t want to be trolled by their division rival, but it’s still satisfying to watch the trolling fall flat and the Guardians season end just one week later.
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