HOUSTON -- After three straight 100-loss seasons before a sudden rise in the standings in 2026, you could hardly blame the Chicago White Sox if they came out a little overexcited upon their return to the postseason.
But as they've done all season, the White Sox signaled that even playoff moments aren't too big for this bunch.
Five pitchers stymied a Houston Astros offense led by presumptive MVP favorite Yordan Alvarez as the White Sox seized the advantage in their American League Wild Card Series with a 6-3 Game 1 win Tuesday. The group effort from Chicago's pitchers featured three scoreless frames to start from rookie Hagen Smith and 2⅓ innings at the end from flamethrowing right-hander Grant Taylor.
The expectation-defying effort was nothing new for the White Sox, who seem to revel in their underdog role.
"I think we can use it to our advantage," Taylor said. "I think that's kind of the story of the year. We came in [the] underdog. No one really believed us to do anything special, and here we are in the postseason."
The White Sox looked right at home from the start against Astros opener AJ Blubaugh, drawing three first-inning walks and scoring on Munetaka Murakami's sacrifice fly. That gave Chicago a lead it never relinquished.
Smith set the tone for the pitching staff by blanking Houston during his three innings on 38 pitches, just his second outing that long since he was promoted from the minors in August. Developed as a starter, Smith was converted to relief work for the stretch run to bolster Chicago's big league pitching corps.
It was a move made specifically for games like the one Tuesday, when Smith gave up only two hits and retired Alvarez twice on grounders, the second with two outs and a runner on third in the third inning.
"It was cool just to get the opportunity to go out there and do that," Smith said. "[I was] just trying to go out there and compete the best I could for the team and give us the best chance to win."
Chicago's pass-the-baton offense featured four walks, two hit batters and five opposite-field base hits. It's not the kind of attack you'd expect from a young team looking to make a playoff splash, especially a power-based team like the White Sox -- who hit the fifth-most homers in baseball during the regular season. Sam Antonacci lashed a key two-run single in the second.
There was one characteristic blast from the White Sox attack, a 432-foot homer to center field off the bat of struggling shortstop Colson Montgomery. Montgomery hit 31 homers this season but also set a big league record with 227 strikeouts and hit .197. As a result, Montgomery was slotted as the No. 9 hitter in manager Will Venable's Game 1 lineup. All of this made Tuesday's homer that much more sweet.
"It felt good," Montgomery said. "The first two pitches, I don't really know what I was doing. They were fastballs right down the middle and that's kind of what I was looking for. I knew he had a good fastball, so I had to be ready. I felt ready."
For the Astros, it was a lackluster showing full of pitchers struggling with command, an error that led to an unearned run and an offense that got a two-run pinch homer from Nelson Velazquez -- but not much else. It was an unusually antsy crowd at Daikin Park, a venue that has seen some of baseball's most dramatic postseason games over the past decade-plus, and boos rained down at times when the walks began to pile up.
For Houston, there is less than 24 hours to clean it up, or else their return to the postseason after a one-year absence will be a short one.
"Oh, the message is clear: We got to win tomorrow," Astros manager Joe Espada said. "I don't need to tell them that. They know. Our backs have been against the corner before and I think that's when we are our best, when we fight back."
The game was iced by Chicago's ace reliever, Taylor, who got seven outs and threw a game-high 54 pitches. Like many of the White Sox, it was the first postseason appearance of Taylor's career. And like his young teammates, he very much looked like he belonged.
"Just electric stuff," Antonacci said. "Everyone has the utmost confidence when he has the ball, so it's fun to watch. I was able to have a front-row seat."
The next test for the upstart White Sox is to turn the page as Venable and his coaching staff try to piece together a pitching plan for Game 2, much as they've had to do all season. They'll be going against a frontline starter in Hunter Brown and a bullpen that did not overtax star closer Josh Hader or setup man Bryan Abreu on Tuesday.
Too much for these incessantly surprising White Sox? Not if everyone is approaching it like Antonacci, who has typified the "why not us?" attitude in Chicago all season. Who needs postseason experience?
"I feel like even if I had 10 years in postseason, it would be the same game," Antonacci said. "It felt like a normal day at the office."