Winning is fun. For the first time in the 2026 season, the White Sox had a winning week. What started as an astonishing sweep of the Los Angeles Angels ended with a near sweep and series win in San Diego. Sunday’s loss capped a 5-1 week and saw the South Siders just two games below .500.
When your team wins five games in a week, there are only a few low lights to mention, but there are always some.
If you’re unfamiliar with the saying “April showers bring May flowers,” look no further than Monday’s game in Chicago. Fans of the Pale Hose braved the weather to bring their pooches to the park, only to be met with a three-hour rain delay. First pitch was finally tossed at 9:40 p.m. CDT, and the White Sox would not win the game until 12:34 a.m. CDT Tuesday. There are serious props to divvy out to those who stayed to see the end of the game. Here’s hoping there were endless beers for those fans.
Pitching’s Weakest Link
Anthony Kay has officially earned this title for the starting rotation. Kay pitched in two games this week, and while there was improvement between the two starts, there is still work to be done.
Monday’s rain delay might have been a long one but the lefty’s outing was quite short. Four innings of pitching resulted in four earned runs, two hit batters, two walks, and two strikeouts. Had the offense not kicked it into high gear, he would have earned the loss. Instead, he eked out a no-decision for the night and got to celebrate a comeback win with his teammates.
Kay also started in the series finale in San Diego on Sunday, giving up three runs (two earned), walking one, and striking out five. He was again in line to get the loss, but the White Sox tied the game in the seventh to take him off the hook. Two no-decisions in one week sure feels better than two losses.
To be fair, the offense was facing a well-rested Mason Miller in the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday. However, I can make no excuses for Acuña when the tying run is on second base with two outs, and you strike out on three pitches to end the game.
Fans can say the White Sox swept the Angels at home and took a series from the Padres in San Diego in 2026. If you had told them that in 2024, they probably would not have believed it. It has been a long road to get back to playing fun baseball again, and followers of the South Side team should be soaking in every last inch of it, no matter how brief it may be.
After the aforementioned rain delay, the White Sox were down 5-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning. If viewers had not already turned the game off, they were in for a treat.
In the seventh inning, Tristan Peters, Andrew Benintendi, Munetaka Murakami, and Miguel Vargas all drove in runs. The outfielders did their damage the old-fashioned way — with a single and a double — while Murakami and Vargas went with their usual method this year: the long ball.
Every run of the seventh inning would count for something as relief pitching gave up two additional tallies to open the week with a final score of 8-7.
In the second game of the home set against the Angels, the South Siders were up against April’s AL Pitcher of the Month, José Soriano. The apparent ace entered the game with an ERA of 0.24 and had not surrendered a run since his start on April 6. After 25 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball, Colson Montgomery tagged one to right field in the second inning of the game to snap the streak.
On the home pitching side of things, Davis Martin continues to make himself known. He was one out shy of another quality start, going 5 2/3 innings, striking out seven, and allowing just one run. He ended the night with an ERA below 2.00.
Tuesday was the night Drew Romo officially made a name for himself. In the fourth inning, he too hit a home run off of Soriano. His first hit of the season would also be his first career home run. The switch-hitter decided to take his at-bat in the sixth inning from the right side of the plate and hit his second hit of the season. This one also exited the park.
There was an abundance of school-aged children at Wednesday’s series finale, given that it was Weather Day at the ballpark. They made their presence known with many screams captured by the on-field microphone.
Even though he earned a no-decision, Erik Fedde showed up for seven strong innings of baseball. He held Mike Trout’s Angels to just two runs, walked no one, and struck out six. Seranthony Domínguez earned his keep after recording the save in Tuesday’s game. The closer held this game at a 2-2 tie in the top of the tenth and even ended up with the win.
The contest was looking like it was going to be a tough 2-1 loss until the bottom of the ninth inning. Sam Antonacci hit his second triple of the season to drive in Peters to tie it up and push the contest into extras. In the 10th inning with the bases loaded, Montgomery played hero and walked off the game to complete the sweep.
Vibes were high when the White Sox arrived in San Diego. Mune treated some of his teammates to sushi during the off-day, and it appears a new handshake between him and Montgomery was born out of it.
The power of friendship is clearly what brought them to homering in the same game for the seventh time this season. They are the only pair to do so this season thus far. Murakami’s home run capped off a six-run second inning for the White Sox. His 13th dinger of the season allowed him to retake the MLB home run lead (as of 9:35 p.m. CDT May 4, Mune and Aaron Judge are now tied for the lead after hitting their 14th home runs).
The shortstop’s round-tripper did not occur until three innings later to extend the lead to 7-0. Long balls are always exciting, but the ninth home run of Montgomery’s season carried a little less pizazz than his counterpart’s 13th.
Scoring eight runs will win plenty of ballgames, but strong pitching is what keeps teams in them. Noah Schultz knew the task at hand and delivered one of his strongest outings thus far. The 22-year-old rookie struck out only two batters in his six innings of work, but he also allowed no runs, keeping the White Sox’s cushion at maximum comfort.
Sean Burke would like a word with Martin about the title for pitching staff ace. The righthander came out guns blazing in San Diego and fired six innings of no-run baseball, striking out six along the way. Burke has now gone 14 1/3 innings without allowing a run.
Domínguez yet again gets praise for achieving the save in this win as well.
The singular blemish to the week came on Sunday; however, there were still highlights in the close loss.
First and foremost, Romo homered for a third time in the week during the top of the third inning to give the Good Guys an early lead. As if that were not exciting enough, Derek Hill saw that the team was running out of time and hit a game-tying two-run bomb in the seventh inning.
The saddest little infield squibbler in the eighth brought home the go-ahead run, lifting the Padres and handing the White Sox their first loss of the week.
If you weren’t keeping track, pitching gave up only 17 runs last week. That is an average of less than three runs per game. On the flip side, the offense scored 32 runs. That comes out to just over five runs per game. Five runs scored per game > three given up per game = lots of wins this season. This equation, if repeated by the White Sox many weeks over, could result in a very fun rest of the season.
The big news during Sunday’s loss was that Chicago promoted Braden Montgomery from the Double-A Birmingham Barons to the Triple-A Charlotte Knights. After 99 at-bats with the Barons, the outfield prospect is hitting .313 with five doubles, three triples, and six home runs. A promotion well deserved.
Also down on the farm, Hagen Smith was named the White Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Month for April. He ended the month with a 2.20 ERA in Charlotte, striking out 21 batters in 16 1/3 innings pitched.
Austin Hays went on the injured list on May 4 with a calf strain. To add outfield depth to an already infield-heavy White Sox team, the front office signed Randal Grichuk to a one-year, $1.25 million deal. The former first-rounder was DFA’d by the Yankees on Friday after playing in 16 games and batting .194. He will fit right in with this outfield.
The momentum looks to continue on the West Coast with three more games against the Angels until the Good Guys can return home for a weekend series against the Mariners.