White Sox complete one of the most humiliating postseason collapses in MLB history

The Chicago White Sox were one win away. That's what makes this so hard to swallow. They had the Cleveland Guardians down 2-0 in the ALDS, were heading home with two chances to finish the job, and somehow managed to lose the next three games.

Saturday night's 2-0 loss in Cleveland officially ended their season. And while there were plenty of reasons to feel good about this team just a week ago, it's going to take a while for White Sox fans to appreciate any of them.

How do you let a 2-0 lead slip away?

Seriously, how?

Chicago went into Cleveland and won the first two games. The White Sox shut out the Guardians 3-0 in Game 1 and followed it with a 4-3 victory in Game 2.

Braden Montgomery came through with a huge two-run double. Sean Burke retired 13 consecutive hitters out of the bullpen. Grant Taylor picked up another save.

Everything was working.

The White Sox had won four straight postseason games, and the Guardians looked like a team running out of answers.

Then Chicago returned home, and whatever had been working suddenly disappeared.

Cleveland scored nine runs in Game 3. Fine. It happens. Nobody expected the Guardians to roll over without a fight.

But Game 4 was the one that should bother everyone.

Chicago took the lead in the fifth inning. The crowd had every reason to believe it was finally going to see the White Sox advance to the ALCS.

Then came the sixth.

Six Cleveland runs. Just like that, the game was gone.

Taylor, who had been so good earlier in the series, couldn't record an out. Four runs were charged to him, and Chicago never recovered.

The White Sox also left 12 runners on base that night. Twelve.

You can blame the bullpen all you want, but the offense had plenty of opportunities to make things easier.

Instead of celebrating at home, the White Sox were packing their bags for another trip to Cleveland.

The White Sox picked the worst possible time to stop hitting

What happened Saturday was almost fitting, considering how the previous two games unfolded.

Chicago had spent most of the series giving Cleveland opportunities to climb back into games. In Game 5, the Guardians didn't need nine runs or another disastrous bullpen inning.

They needed two.

The White Sox couldn't score once.

That's a miserable way to end a season, especially when you consider how this series started.

And it wasn't as though Chicago needed to pull off some remarkable comeback. The White Sox were the ones with the advantage. They had three opportunities to win one game.

They lost all three.

There's no clever way to dress that up.

Manager Will Venable will face questions about his bullpen decisions. The hitters will have to answer for missed opportunities. And the front office will need to decide whether this roster is actually ready to take another step.

Those are fair conversations to have.

But none of them changes the fact that Cleveland was practically out of this series before Chicago gave it a way back in.

A good season doesn't erase a terrible ending

Here's the part Chicago fans must be consider.

The White Sox weren't supposed to be here.

This is an organization that lost 121 games in 2024. Two years later, they finished 84-78, made the playoffs and swept its Wild Card Series.

That's a remarkable turnaround.

Montgomery, Munetaka Murakami and Chase Meidroth helped make baseball on the South Side interesting again. Venable deserves credit for guiding a young roster into October.

For the first time in a long time, White Sox fans had something worth getting excited about.

And that's precisely why this hurts.

Nobody expected this team to win the World Series when the season began. But expectations change when you start winning postseason games.

Once the White Sox took a 2-0 lead against Cleveland, simply reaching the Division Series wasn't enough anymore.

They had a legitimate opportunity to reach the ALCS for the first time since 2005.

Think about that. Twenty-one years without getting that far, and Chicago needed just one more win.

The White Sox couldn't find it.

There will eventually be time to appreciate the improvement. There will be plenty of discussion about the young players, the offseason and what 2027 might bring.

But right now, none of that matters much.

The White Sox didn't lose this series because Cleveland was clearly the better team from the beginning. Chicago had the Guardians beaten twice and put itself in position to finish them off.

Then the pitching fell apart, the offense went quiet and the season ended with Cleveland celebrating.

White Sox fans have endured plenty over the years. They've watched losing seasons pile up, prospects fail to develop and an organization struggle to find its direction.

This year was supposed to be different.

For a while, it really was.

That's what makes the ending so much worse.

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