Chicago White Sox Hold First in the AL Central as the Deadline Closes In

The Chicago White Sox went 2-4 over the past week and are still in first place. Eighteen months ago that sentence would have been a joke; today it is just an accurate description of the AL Central, where nobody has managed to string together enough baseball to pull away. Chicago sits at 56-51, a game and a half up on Cleveland, after a seven-game home stand against Houston and New York that exposed roughly everything soft about this roster and also produced the best win of the season. With the trade deadline set for Monday, Aug. 3 at 6 p.m. ET, general manager Chris Getz has about four days to decide how much of the future he wants to spend on a present nobody in the organization planned for.

A White Sox Home Stand That Cut Both Ways

After Thursday's off day, the Astros came in and took two of three. Friday's 9-5 loss was a bullpen collapse: Davis Martin gave up four runs over five innings, then Bryan Hudson allowed four more while recording two outs. Braden Montgomery went 3-for-5 with a homer in a game nobody remembers. Saturday was worse in a quieter way — Sean Burke struck out 10 over six innings, allowed three runs (two earned), and lost 4-1 because Chicago managed five hits and struck out 10 times against Hunter Brown and Josh Hader.

Sunday was the outlier. Chicago hit Houston for 12 runs on the back of Munetaka Murakami going 3-for-5 with two home runs and six RBIs. Miguel Vargas, Chase Meidroth and Junior Perez also went deep. Erick Fedde was bad again — 4 1/3 innings, three homers allowed — and the bullpen covered the last 4 2/3 without giving up a run. Sean Newcomb got the win.

Then the Yankees arrived. Monday's 9-5 loss featured a promising 3 1/3 innings from rookie lefty Noah Schultz (five strikeouts, three runs) before Hudson took the loss and Newcomb surrendered four runs in a single inning to break it open. Colson Montgomery went 3-for-4 with two RBIs in the loss. Tuesday was a 3-2 defeat that stung more: Anthony Kay went 5 1/3 with seven strikeouts, Meidroth hit a two-run homer, Tyler Schweitzer threw three scoreless out of the pen, and it still wasn't enough against Gerrit Cole and David Bednar.

Twelve Innings, Four Runs Down, and a Walk-Off From the Backup Catcher

Wednesday is why people are still buying tickets on the South Side. Spencer Jones hit a three-run homer in the first inning and Chicago was down 4-0 before the crowd sat down. Davis Martin, who had every reason to unravel, finished six innings with four earned runs and six strikeouts and handed off a game that was still theoretically alive.

Andrew Benintendi doubled in a run in the seventh. In the eighth, Sam Antonacci hit a two-run homer — his eighth — and Murakami followed with his 23rd to tie it. New York scored in the 11th on an Anthony Volpe sacrifice fly; Chicago answered. New York scored again in the 12th on a José Caballero single; Chicago answered again, and this time it ended things. Meidroth sacrificed Tristan Peters to third and Edgar Quero — recalled on July 21 when Kyle Teel went on the 10-day injured list with a left ankle sprain, and hitting .184 on the season — lined a single to center to win it 6-5. Grant Taylor covered 2 1/3 innings of one-run relief; Jordan Hicks got the win.

Munetaka Murakami Is Carrying This Offense

The Japanese slugger is hitting .240/.380/.547 with 23 home runs, 49 RBIs and 57 walks in 72 games — a .927 OPS with 102 strikeouts attached, which is the deal you sign up for. He missed 35 games earlier this year with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain and Chicago went 17-18 without him. He was activated July 10. The correlation is not subtle.

Around him, the supporting cast is more interesting than it has any right to be:

• Miguel Vargas: .242/.348/.480, 22 homers, 63 RBIs, 72 runs, 11 steals in 106 games.
• Colson Montgomery: team-leading 24 home runs and 61 RBIs, but a .220 average and 134 strikeouts.
• Sam Antonacci: .278/.369/.417 with 57 runs and 14 steals as a rookie who debuted in April.
• Chase Meidroth: .275/.344/.397, 61 runs, and the best on-base skills of the young infielders.
• Randal Grichuk: .260 with a .848 OPS in 56 games since coming over from the Yankees, after a .535 OPS in 16 games in New York.

Add it up and Chicago has scored 514 runs, the most in the American League. That is not a typo, and it is the single strangest fact of this season.

White Sox Pitching Is Still the Problem

They have also allowed 472 runs, seventh in the AL, and the rotation is the reason the division lead keeps shrinking to a game and a half and then growing back. Davis Martin (9-5, 3.62 in 117 innings) and Sean Burke (7-5, 3.19, 130 strikeouts in 118 1/3) are legitimate. Anthony Kay (7-5, 4.25) is fine. Erick Fedde has a 4.25 ERA and gave up three homers in 4 1/3 on Sunday. Noah Schultz, the organization's crown-jewel lefty, is 3-7 with a 6.15 ERA across 13 starts and is clearly still learning on the job at the worst possible time.

The bullpen has been the saving grace. Grant Taylor has a 2.47 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 54 2/3 innings. Newcomb is at 2.97, Hudson at 2.96 despite two ugly outings this week, Trevor Richards at 3.55 since arriving from Philadelphia, and Seranthony Domínguez has 12 saves with a 4.21 ERA that flatters nobody. Will Venable has been leaning on that group hard, and it is fair to wonder how much is left in it by late September.

Deadline Math for the Chicago White Sox

Getz has already made moves in both directions. On July 11 he sent lefty Brandon Eisert and infielder Jacob Gonzalez to Pittsburgh for lefty Jaden Woods plus additional considerations — CBS Sports reported a Competitive Balance Round A pick was included. Two weeks later, on July 26, he went back to the same trading partner and acquired right-hander José Urquidy for righty Felix Doroteo. Urquidy was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte on July 28, which tells you exactly what that was: depth, not a rotation fix.

MLB.com has reported Getz is unwilling to move top prospects Caleb Bonemer or Braden Montgomery for rental help, and that the organizational need is pitching depth rather than one ace. That is a defensible position for a team coming off three straight 100-loss seasons. It is also a frustrating one if you have watched Schultz's last five starts.

On the injury front: Teel remains on the 10-day IL, and the club signed Eric Haase to a minor league deal on July 28 for catching cover. Austin Hays has been on a rehab assignment at Charlotte since July 17 while on the 60-day IL. Drew Thorpe advanced his rehab to High-A Winston-Salem on July 24, and Tyler Gilbert is rehabbing at Charlotte. Everson Pereira was activated July 27, with Junior Perez optioned in the corresponding move.

The schedule does not do them any favors. New York is back at Rate Field on Thursday with Ryan Weathers facing Sean Burke, then Chicago flies to Tampa Bay for three against the 63-44 Rays — the best record in the American League — before three more at Fenway. If the White Sox come out of that stretch still holding the AL Central, the whole thing gets settled the following weekend, when Cleveland comes to Rate Field for three games starting Aug. 7. This is a real race between two flawed teams, and for once the Chicago White Sox are the ones with something to protect.