White Sox down Guardians; Yankees on brink after loss

LOS ANGELES — The Chicago White Sox rallied to beat the Cleveland Guardians in the latest stop on their fairytale Major League Baseball playoff run on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) as the New York Yankees edged closer to elimination after a defeat to Tampa Bay. Munetaka Murakami, Braden Montgomery and Chase Meidroth drove in the winning runs for Chicago in a 4-3 victory at Cleveland's Progressive Field that leaves the White Sox with a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series. The White Sox — carrying the hopes of lifetime fan Pope Leo XIV — are aiming to continue one of the most remarkable turnaround seasons in baseball. After three straight seasons with 100 or more defeats the White Sox finished the regular season with an 84-78 record, snagging the sixth seed in the American League. In their first playoff series since 2021 they ousted the Houston Astros in two games in the Wild Card round. They now need only one more win to return to the AL Championship Series for the first time since their World Series-winning campaign in 2005. White Sox manager Will Venable saluted his team's character after climbing out of an early 2-0 hole to claim victory. "It's the same stuff we have...