CLEVELAND (AP) — The Chicago White Sox weren’t supposed to be anywhere near first place in the AL Central this September.
The goal now is to finish there.
Playing carefree and with an aggressive style that has made them baseball’s biggest surprise in 2026, the White Sox erupted for six runs following Tristan Peters’ incredible, 18-pitch plate appearance in the sixth inning on Monday night and beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in the opener of their division showdown series.
With the victory, the White Sox, who lost at least 100 games in each of the previous three seasons, moved 1 1/2 games ahead of Cleveland. They also secured the tiebreaker in case the rivals finish with identical records.
“It’s huge,” said Peters, who fouled off 12, two-strike pitches in his battle with Gavin Williams. “I think more important, too, is how we went about it. That was more like ourselves. We were fired up and just felt like that’s the baseball that we play. That was the most encouraging part.”
Kyle Teel hit a two-run double and Miguel Vargas connected for a two-run homer following Peters’ lengthy trip to the plate.
“An amazing at-bat,” said White Sox manager Will Venable.
The game was scoreless in the sixth when Peters came up following a leadoff walk to Andrew Benintendi. Williams (13-8) got ahead 1-2 in the count before Peters went into survival mode during a plate appearance he’ll never forget.
“I felt like I was fighting for my life up there,” he said.
Peters fouled off a four-seam fastball, curveball, sweeper and another fastball before taking ball two. Williams then tried another curveball, a four-seamer, sweeper, cutter and curve, and each time Peters found a way to get a piece of the pitch and foul it off.
“He was nibbling the corners, so I was just trying to see it as deep as possible, especially when I got to two strikes,” Peters explained. “I was just battling, trying to put something in play. ... I might have swung at one that might have hit me.”
As the battle wore on, the Chicago dugout became energized with every swing and foul ball headed into the stands drawing a bigger cheer.
Peters took Williams’ 15th pitch for a ball and fouled off two more before earning a walk to end the longest plate appearance in MLB this season and the third longest since 2000.
Williams tipped his cap to Peters.
“I counted at one point and I just stopped counting because it was getting up there,” Williams said. “Those at-bats are frustrating. I don’t think I’ve ever gone in an at-bat that long.”
Like Peters, these White Sox, who have been alone in first place since July 4, aren’t going down without a fight.
While they came in struggling with 10 losses in 14 games since Aug. 30, Peters said the mood has remained positive and during a hitter’s meeting before this series there were reminders to just keep swinging — and smiling.
“We’re just trying to get back to being ourselves,” he said. “I think we might be gripping the bat too tight and stuff like that. But today we played loose and just had some fun. This game is supposed to be fun and I think that’s how we’ve been doing it all year.”
The loss was a missed chance for the Guardians, who will have two more cracks at the White Sox and a return to first.
“This team’s not going to get down by one loss,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “We have two more in this series. We know what we’re up against. We know that there’s an 11-game sprint to the end, but we can only take care of one at a time.
“This team hasn’t let one loss get him down yet. I don’t expect that to happen now.”
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