Chicago White Sox Come Out of the Break Swinging, Beat deGrom and Grab First Place Back

Somewhere between the 121-loss horror show of 2024 and this week, the Chicago White Sox became the kind of team that walks into Toronto and Texas, plays six road games coming out of the All-Star break, wins four of them, and leaves with sole possession of first place in the AL Central. Sit with that sentence for a second. The White Sox went 4-2 on this trip, beat Jacob deGrom along the way, got a 100-mph exclamation point from rookie reliever Grant Taylor, and woke up Thursday at 54-47 with a one-game lead on Cleveland. This is not a fluke week, either. It is the continuation of a first half that ended with three All-Stars, a 50-45 record at the break, and a front office openly telling reporters it plans to add before the deadline. The rebuild is over. The race is on.

Taking Two of Three in Toronto

The White Sox came out of the break Friday night at Rogers Centre — roof closed because of wildfire smoke — and treated the Blue Jays like a team with something to prove, which they are. The 12-4 win on July 17 featured a five-run second inning built on Sam Antonacci's two-run homer and a Kyle Teel RBI double, a bases-loaded double from Colson Montgomery in the fifth, and Braden Montgomery's first career triple, also with the bases loaded, in the seventh. Every starter in the lineup had at least one hit. Manager Will Venable called slugging and scoring runs "a big part of our identity," and Braden Montgomery said the outburst would "stoke the flames" for the second half.

Saturday brought the inevitable correction. Shane Bieber outdueled Davis Martin in a 1-0 Toronto win, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubling in the fourth and scoring on George Springer's single for the game's only run. Martin deserved better — 5 2/3 innings, four hits, five strikeouts — but all three Chicago hits were doubles that led nowhere, and the four-game winning streak died quietly.

Sunday's rubber match was the most encouraging game of the trip. Sean Burke threw 6 2/3 innings of two-hit ball, striking out five in front of 41,288, while Toronto rookie Trey Yesavage piled up nine strikeouts and still lost. Andrew Benintendi's sacrifice fly opened the scoring, Colson Montgomery launched his 24th home run of the season in the sixth, and Braden Montgomery tacked on an RBI single. Grant Taylor closed out the 3-0 shutout for his fifth save, and the White Sox left Canada with a series win.

Beating deGrom, Surviving Texas

Monday in Arlington, Chicago did something it had not done in a while: win at Globe Life Field, snapping a 10-game losing streak at the ballpark, and doing it against Jacob deGrom of all people. The 10-3 win turned on Benintendi's two-out, go-ahead three-run double in the fifth, the hit that chased deGrom after 4 2/3 innings and five runs. Miguel Vargas went 3-for-5 with two RBI doubles, Erick Fedde gave the Sox four serviceable innings in his start, and reliever Chris Murphy picked up the win. The only sour note — and it was a big one — was Teel crumpling on a swipe-tag attempt at the plate in the second inning.

Tuesday was a mess best forgotten. Kumar Rocker held the White Sox to one hit over six innings, Noah Schultz got tagged for 11 hits in 3 2/3, and Texas piled up 18 hits in a 10-0 blowout, with Brandon Nimmo going 4-for-4 with a homer. Combined with Cleveland's schedule, the loss briefly knocked Chicago out of sole possession of first.

Wednesday's response is why this team feels different. Chase Meidroth went 4-for-4 with two RBIs, Benintendi drove in two more, and Anthony Kay ground out five innings for the win in a 4-2 victory. Then the bullpen threw four hitless innings, headlined by Taylor striking out five of the six hitters he faced and touching 100.4 mph. With Cleveland losing 10-6 to Minnesota the same night, the White Sox reclaimed first place outright and flew home in the best position this franchise has occupied in late July since 2021.

Standout Performances on the South Side

The week's honor roll runs deep. Benintendi quietly drove in runs in three of the four wins, including the biggest swing of the trip against deGrom. Vargas, an All-Star hitting .245/.355/.493 with 21 homers and 59 RBIs on the season, kept stacking doubles. Colson Montgomery's 24th home run confirmed his breakout power year at shortstop, while rookie Braden Montgomery collected his first career triple and a handful of clutch RBIs.

On the mound, Burke's 6 2/3 shutout innings in Toronto was the start of the week, and Taylor is becoming appointment viewing — the rookie closed Sunday's shutout, then carved up Texas on Wednesday with triple-digit heat. The context matters too: Munetaka Murakami, back from a six-week hamstring absence, has 20 home runs in just 60 games, and the club was a pedestrian 17-18 without him. Rookie center fielder Tristan Peters, a first-time All-Star hitting .301 with a cycle already on his resume, had a quiet week at the plate, and the offense scored 29 runs in six games anyway. That is what depth looks like.

Where the Chicago White Sox Stand in the AL Central

At 54-47, the Chicago White Sox lead the AL Central by one game over Cleveland, with the Tigers and Twins still lurking in a division nobody is running away with. Chasing a first division title since 2021, they will have to earn it the hard way: schedule analysts note Chicago has by far the toughest remaining slate of any AL Central team — 17th-hardest in baseball — while Cleveland owns the easiest remaining schedule in the majors and Detroit the second-easiest. The Sox also have only 22 division games left to Cleveland's 26, which means fewer chances to settle this head-to-head. Every game against soft competition they give away, like Tuesday's clunker in Texas, gets magnified.

Injuries and Roster News: Teel Hits the IL

The Teel injury stings. The catcher sprained his left ankle on that tag play Monday and went on the 10-day injured list Tuesday, with Edgar Quero recalled from Triple-A Charlotte to take his spot. It has been a brutal season for Teel, who didn't debut until June 22 because of a hamstring strain and was hitting just .190 in 19 games. Quero, who hit .187 in 55 games earlier this year, now gets another crack at the job during a pennant race.

The broader injury picture, per recent IL reports:

• Kyle Teel, C — 10-day IL, left ankle sprain
• Austin Hays, OF — 60-day IL, calf strain, no timetable
• Jordan Leasure, RP — 60-day IL, forearm strain
• Everson Pereira, OF — concussion IL
• Tyler Gilbert, RP — shoulder impingement
• Drew Thorpe, Ky Bush, Prelander Berroa, Mike Vasil — long-term elbow rehabs, with Vasil and Brooks Baldwin out for the season

On the trade front, general manager Chris Getz has said the club will "look for opportunities to help with this now and for the future," and he has already added reliever Jaden Woods. ESPN's Jeff Passan and Buster Olney this week both named the White Sox among the teams they expect to buy aggressively before the August 3 deadline, with reports linking Chicago to controllable starters such as the Angels' Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano and Miami's Sandy Alcantara. Per those reports, top prospects Caleb Bonemer and Braden Montgomery are considered off-limits. Treat the names as rumors; treat the intent as real.

What's Next for the Chicago White Sox

After a Thursday off day, the schedule turns nasty in a hurry, all at Rate Field:

• July 24-26 vs. Houston Astros — Davis Martin vs. Spencer Arrighetti Friday, Sean Burke vs. Hunter Brown Saturday, Erick Fedde vs. Ronel Blanco Sunday
• July 27-30 vs. New York Yankees — a four-game set
• July 31-August 2 at Tampa Bay Rays, with the deadline looming right behind it

That is seven straight against the Astros and Yankees, then a Tampa trip, with Yordan Alvarez and his .328 average arriving first. It is the kind of stretch that will tell everyone — including Getz, shopping before the deadline — exactly how real this team is.

Here is the honest read: the Chicago White Sox are a first-place team with a rookie closer throwing 100, a lineup that just hung 10 on deGrom's ledger, and a front office acting like a buyer for the first time in half a decade. The schedule is about to punch back, and Cleveland isn't going anywhere. But if this week on the road proved anything, it's that the South Siders no longer need anyone's permission to be taken seriously. The next ten days will show whether they can keep the division lead they just fought to take back.