‘This is who they are’: Sox look legit near 60 games in

There’s some serious mojo brewing on the south side. The White Sox are three games above .500 almost 60 games into the season, a point when it’s safe to say the sample size is big enough to get a read on what a team is like.

In the White Sox case, they’re in second place in their division and have a nearly 50 percent chance at making the playoffs with Friday night’s 4-3 extra-inning walk-off win over the Tigers, and they seem to be gaining momentum. It’s far too early to start thinking about the postseason much, but again, it’s late enough in the 2026 campaign to take what the Sox are doing seriously.

“At this point you kind of feel like that it’s not just a good few games we had, or a good week where we were locked in and playing hard, but this is who they are,” manager Will Venable said.

Entering Friday’s game, the Sox were fifth in baseball in home runs, seventh in runs scored, and eighth in wins above replacement. On the mound, their starting rotation is near the top third of the league in ERA, and the bullpen has had some standout performances.

And those metrics are trending upward for the White Sox, who were seven games below .500 three weeks into the season. Since then, they’ve posted a winning record, and in an American League that does not have many teams in playoff shape, it’s easy to start dreaming of the team’s first postseason appearance in five years, something that would be especially satisfying given how bad things looked as recently as 2024.

“We’re exceeding everybody’s expectations so far,” Andrew Benintendi told CHGO. “Obviously, it’s a long season, but in the clubhouse we’re confident in there. Everybody’s buying into what their role is and whatnot. I think before the year had you told us we’d be where we are right now, we’d have said it.”

Friday’s win was a window into both what Rate Field could be like this summer — and perhaps even the fall — and the kind of baseball the Sox are playing. With over 30,000 fans in attendance, many of them participating in the “tarps off” cheer that has made its way across baseball stadiums this spring, the Sox rallied in the ninth after trailing for eight innings to tie the Tigers on a Rikuu Nishida sacrifice bunt that scored Benintendi from third.

And then after Detroit scored their courtesy runner in the top of the tenth, Miguel Vargas smacked Drew Anderson’s 0-1 changeup into the left field seats to give the Sox their 15th comeback win and fourth walk-off of the season.

LET'S GO! MIGUEL VARGAS! pic.twitter.com/DfFCbmOhEm

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 30, 2026

“I said that earlier in the season,” Vargas said of how good he thinks the Sox can be. “Probably a lot of people don’t believe me. I think the clubhouse did believe in that. We put that on the field every day.”

The moments like Vargas’ homer grab the bulk of the attention, and him circling the bases will be the primary highlight of the game, but a part of what’s giving the Sox these kinds of moments is the work of the bullpen. In Friday’s game, Brandon Eisert tossed a scoreless inning and a third as the opener, and Sean Newcomb, Seranthony Dominguez, and Bryan Hudson picked things up after Erick Fedde held the Tigers to two runs in his four innings pitched.

“We’re all kind of antsy down there,” Hudson told CHGO. “We see the game, how it’s going. We know it’s a close game, and everyone’s a dog down there. They want to pitch, so everyone’s antsy.

“We never count ourselves out in games like this. We’re all kind of itching, staying locked in, and just kind of fighting for each other to be good out there.”

If there’s anything that could wind up a stumbling block for the Sox, it’s either getting ahead of themselves and counting proverbial playoff chickens before they’re hatched, or, the baseball gods forbid, injuries to key players. As far as the former, the Sox are keeping a healthy perspective, thanks in part to the veteran presence of guys like Benintendi.

“You start looking too far ahead, it’s unrealistic,” Benintendi said. “If you show up to work every day, you do your routine, you go do your work, and you play.”

But when it comes to the latter, there might be concern. In the third inning Friday, Munetaka Murakami beat out a throw to first to reach on a fielder’s choice, but he left the game with a right hamstring strain that Venable said might sideline him for a couple of weeks.

Venable said no official injured list decision would be made until Saturday at the earliest, but his initial expectation was that the Sox first baseman would be out for long enough to require an IL stint.

This would be a significant blow, given that Murakami is tied for second in baseball with 20 home runs, and given that he’s played in every game so far this season. There does seem to be help coming, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that Jacob Gonzalez was getting a callup in the wake of Murakami’s injury.

Gonzalez, who is slashing .308/.414/.646 with 18 homers in 51 games, was pulled early from his game with Triple-A Charlotte Friday, and assuming he is on his way to Chicago, he might be able to help fill some of the void left by Murakami, as big as those shoes might be.

The good news for Sox fans is that Murakami’s injury does not appear to be overly serious. He walked off the field rather easily on Friday, and Venable described it as “a little hamstring strain,” so Murakami’s absence is not likely to be drawn out. So even if Gonzalez provides a mild boost, the rest of the Sox offense should be able to absorb enough of the missing power to keep the winning going.

If they do, expect a lot more nights like Friday. There was an energy at Rate Field that hasn’t been there in a number of years, and as he looked around at the crowd, Venable recognized the buzz as something yielded by several years of work rebuilding the team. As of late May, they can all see the fruits of that labor.

“Just proud of the progress of the organization,” Venable said. “We have something on the field that fans are excited to come watch and be a part of our games and the effort these guys are putting on the field. Just proud of the organization.”