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White Sox Veteran Questions ‘Dead Ball’ After Unlucky ALDS Break
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- White Sox Veteran Questions ‘Dead Ball’ After Unlucky ALDS Break
(Photo by Lauren Leigh Bacho/MLB Photos)
A 3-0 Chicago White Sox victory in Game 1 of the ALDS could have been even more lopsided had it not been for a few unfortunate breaks.
None were more significant from a momentum standpoint than a near three-run home run off the bat of veteran Tommy Pham that instead turned into a double play and bailed the Cleveland Guardians out of a tight jam.
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It came in the top of the sixth inning with the White Sox nursing a 2-0 lead and looking to cash in against relief pitcher Erik Sabrowski to add some much-needed insurance.
Pham got a first-pitch fastball right down the middle and jumped all over it. Off the bat, everybody watching at home (and pretty much everybody in the ballpark) thought the 38-year-old veteran had hit another massive three-run home run in Cleveland, much like he did during the regular season in one of the games that ultimately helped decide the AL Central.
The ball was clobbered at 106.1 mph off the bat with a 31-degree launch angle and appeared ticketed for the left-field seats.
Pham dropped the bat as if to celebrate his home run, while Miguel Vargas, who was running on the pitch from first base, took off around the bases. But the ball died quickly and was caught in front of the wall, leaving Vargas out to dry as the Guardians got the ball back in to turn a double play.
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It's hard to blame anyone for jumping to conclusions. Especially Pham. Of the 82 balls hit at least 106 mph with a 31-degree launch angle during the 2026 season, 81 left the ballpark. Pham's was the only exception.
There was a nine mph wind blowing across the field, which could help explain why the ball didn't carry. But Pham wasn't completely buying that explanation after the game.
"I don't know, it might've just been a dead ball," Pham told the Chicago Sun-Times . "Baseball gods will look out for me another time."
Even after Chicago's victory, Pham took to social media to question how a pull-side fly ball with those dimensions could result in anything other than a home run. And based on his comments after the game, it's clear he believes the baseball itself may have been to blame.
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Are the baseballs being used in this series more dead than usual? They certainly didn't seem to bother Munetaka Murakami when he launched a ball 440 feet earlier in the game.
And even if the baseballs are a bit dead, is that necessarily a bad thing for the White Sox? Chicago has been carried by particularly strong pitching performances throughout the postseason, so a ball that isn't traveling quite as far could theoretically work in its favor.
Or was there something different about this baseball in particular?
Whatever Pham believes happened, the numbers certainly give him a reason to wonder. A ball hit that hard at that launch angle almost always leaves the yard. His didn't.
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Ultimately, Pham said it best. If it was nothing more than unfortunate batted-ball luck, those are the types of things that tend to even out over the course of a baseball season or a playoff run. As long as he continues to have good at-bats and hit the ball hard like he did Saturday afternoon, the results will follow.
Controlling the controllables should be the sole takeaways from this situation for every player in the White Sox clubhouse as they look to continue this postseason run.
It might be easy to roll your eyes at a player like Pham looking for something to blame after a bad break. But that same fire and energy is part of what he brings to the White Sox clubhouse and what made him an attractive addition in the first place.
Perhaps that same fire will fuel him to make up for it with a few more big hits later in the series.
