CLEVELAND — Sean Burke struck out a season-high 11 over six innings and Colson Montgomery drove in two runs, including the go-ahead homer in the eighth, as the Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 on Saturday — and moved into first place in the AL Central.
Burke allowed one run on seven hits, walked nobody and threw 95 pitches. His previous season high was eight strikeouts, a number he had reached four times without passing. The only damage was Austin Hedges‘ solo homer in the fifth, which briefly tied the game. Burke is now 5-4 with a 3.56 ERA, and the zero in the walk column is what made this start different: Cleveland never got a free baserunner to build an inning around.
Montgomery supplied the runs that mattered. His RBI double in the first put Chicago up 1-0, and his 22nd home run of the season — a solo shot off Tim Herrin in the eighth — untied it for good. The batting average still sits at .221, but 22 homers and 51 RBI at the season’s halfway mark is the version of Montgomery this rebuild was always betting on. Tristan Peters, quietly hitting .291, went 2-for-3 and scored an insurance run in the ninth on Miguel Vargas‘ sacrifice fly.
The bullpen finished what Burke started. Brandon Eisert threw two hitless innings for the win, and Grant Taylor worked the ninth for his third save.
Now, the standings — stated honestly. Chicago is 46-42, Cleveland 47-43, which makes this a first-place lead of exactly one percentage point, .523 to .522. Nobody should order playoff tickets off that math. But the White Sox woke up Saturday a game back and went to bed in front, and for a franchise that lost 121 games two seasons ago, playing meaningful baseball in July is not a small thing. The young core keeps holding up its end: Burke, Montgomery and Taylor all left fingerprints on this one. The series concludes Sunday in Cleveland.
