On the day it was announced that Ozzie Guillén would be honored with a number retirement ceremony in August, the White Sox responded by grinding out a 5-4 win in 10 innings.
In the 10th, the White Sox lost the lead for the first time in the game after a careless error — then rallied in the bottom half by forcing Toronto in a careless error themselves. Newcomers Derek Hill and Tristan Peters (who both faced key setbacks earlier in the game) were the key to the win, perhaps truly signalling a real difference in the 2026 team.
The pilot of 2005’s famed “grinders” who went wire-to-wire as division leaders and ran off 11 wins in 12 games to capture the title would have been proud. Right after the live announcement after the top of the third inning, the White Sox rallied to take a 3-1 lead over Toronto, buoyed by a double-steal of second and third.
With one out, Miguel Vargas walked and Colson Montgomery singled softly to third base, before triggering the double steal, one that caught Jays third baseman Kazuma Okamoto on his heels for a pair of easy swipes. From there, Austin Hays turned a full-count inside fastball burning at 98 mph for the lead safety:
And just for extra measure, Chase Meidroth saw Okamoto laying back and dropped a deliciously perfect bunt single in the fourth.
But just like the 2005 White Sox, whose supposed grindiness belied immaculate pitching from 1-12, today’s story was the buff arms on the Chicago side. Reliever Grant Taylor got the start as opener, and threw nine pitches, all strikes. He worked a fast and fearsome first frame.
Taylor gave way to bulk pitcher Sean Burke, and aside from an initial hiccup in the second that saw back-to-back doubles tie the game, 1-1, the righthander carried on what Taylor began. Burke was sharp, aggressive, and efficient enough to take the game through the seventh. Those six innings of four-hit, one-run, seven-K ball represented the longest White Sox outing of the season.
In the other dugout, it was veteran and former White Sox Dylan Cease who seemed to be pitching through some nerves and fighting with his focus and command. His error covering first base on a grounder to Vlad Guerrero Jr. allowed Meidroth to scamper home with the first White Sox run. Always durable but not always efficient, Cease got the collar after 93 pitches with one out in the fourth, and was in line for the loss.
Why just in line for the loss? Well, as is its wont, the White Sox bullpen caved. Two batters after Burke left the game, Andrés Giménez clobbered a first-pitch fastball out to right, and just like that the score was knotted at three.
But let’s not drop this at Leasure’s spikes only; the White Sox shut down their offense just three innings once again, striking out eight times (12 total in the game) and stumbling on the basepaths (Peters was picked off of second base in the sixth inning, and the eighth ended on a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out of Hill).
With the game still tied heading into the bottom of the ninth, the White Sox hoped to improve on their mere three sayonara wins all year in 2025, but despite getting leadoff man Edgar Quero on with a single (four hard hits for Edgar on the day, two dropping for hits) and sacrificing pinch-runner Lenyn Sosa to second, they fell short.
In the 10th, Toronto took its first lead of the game after Vargas pulled Munetaka Murakami off of the bag for an error that allowed Manfred Man David Schneider to score.
A productive out pushed Manfred Man Vargas to third to start the White Sox 10th, and thus commenced a crazy sequence to finish the game. After Austin Hays caught a break on a third strike he did not check on but got a generous call from the first-base ump, catcher Alejandro Kirk then saved the lead with an incredible stop on a wild split-fingered pitch. On the very next toss, Hays fouled the ball off and sent Kirk from the game with an injured thumb.
Hays ended up striking out, but Hill stepped right out with a gutsy bunt, challenging new catcher Tyler Heineman and succeeding, as Heineman threw the ball past first base and allowing Vargas to tie the game.
Two pitches later, Peters stroked a single to right for the game-winner.
“There’s a ton of fight here,” Peters said postgame, after being doused by ice water in 50° weather. “We’re just going to move forward on every game.”