White Sox beat Guardians 3-0 in Game 1 of ALDS behind Murakami homer, 3-hitter

CLEVELAND (AP) — Munetaka Murakami hit a two-run homer, five Chicago pitchers combined for a three-hitter and the White Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-0 in Game 1 of their AL Division Series on Saturday.

Colson Montgomery added an RBI double for the White Sox, who have won nine of their last 11 games dating back to the regular season. Chicago advanced to the division series after sweeping Houston in the wild card series.

Cleveland — which won its third straight AL Central title by one game over the White Sox — had the bases loaded with two outs the third and fourth innings, but couldn’t get any runs across.

The White Sox went with a bullpen game for the second time in three postseason contests. It worked again as the pitchers combined for 12 strikeouts.

Bryan Hudson (1-0) got the win and Grant Taylor got the save, going four innings and striking out six while allowing two hits.

Starter Hagen Smith retired the first eight Cleveland hitters before walking Brayan Rocchio, Steven Kwan and José Ramírez to load the bases with two outs in the third. Bryan Hudson came in and got Chase DeLauter to line out to left.

The Guardians didn’t get their first hit until Travis Bazzana’s line-drive double down the right-field line with two outs in the fourth. Austin Hedges drew a walk to load the bases again before Rocchio lined out to right.

After Miguel Vargas lined a base hit to left to lead off the fourth, Murakami drove a first-pitch elevated sinker 440 feet into the right-field stands for his first postseason home run.

Montgomery extended the advantage to 3-0 in the seventh with a double down the left-field line to drive in Kyle Teel.

Cleveland starter Parker Messick (0-1) allowed two runs on four hits in 4 1/3 innings. The rookie left-hander struck out six and walked two.

Game 2 is Monday afternoon at Progressive Field. The series shifts to Chicago for Game 3 on Wednesday.

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Joe Reedy, The Associated Press