Braden Montgomery

The White Sox took the lead in the sixth.

Vargas singled, Randall Gritchick walked, and Braden Montgomery delivered a go-ahead two-run double.

Chase Maradroth followed with an RBI single to make it 4-2.

Cleveland pushed back in the eighth when Chase DeLauder singled and Joe Adele drove in with an RBI triple, cutting it 4-3, but Grant Taylor escaped the eighth and handled the ninth, closing out the win for the Chicago Cubs.

Jose Ramirez doubled, stole third.

and scored on a fielder's choice from chase to ladder, making it 5-2.

The White Sox cut it into a 5-3 lead in the sixth when Braden Montgomery walked, Randall Gritchick singled, Colson Montgomery was hit by a pitch, and Anatoly was hit by a pitch to force in a run.

Cleveland pulled away late.

And it was a big-time responsibility for him to call those, and he came through.

The only time that I felt really bad for Conor, and I told him this personally, I was like, man, that Braden Montgomery...

Home run, man.

You were that close to being in the booth because Bob Costas was ready to bounce innings before that.

And if you guys don't remember, Connor started that game, and then in the second inning, Bob Costas took over, and Connor was just sitting in the back and ready to take over back in the extra innings.

But the Braden Montgomery home run could have been his marquee stamp of approval.

This is what I got.

Listen to

I mean, not theoretically, he picked Sam Antonacci, right? Yeah.

He traded for Chase Mydroff, Braden Montgomery, Kyle Teal.

Like, so, yeah, he gets credit for the players and their temperaments.

And he knew these things before acquiring these people.

He did all this stuff, but hitting for the cycle right after being named an All-Star, I think, is the perfect encapsulation of the unlikeliness of of the moment that was kind of you might say that was the peak of the regular season in a way as far as where they were in the division where the momentum was going so that was that was just a really fantastic moment uh braid montgomery that was the moment for me against atlanta where i thought to myself wow they might be able to really do it Like, this is a team that's got some juice.

I was kind of expecting them up to that point to fade down the stretch like they did in 2019 when they also looked pretty good, hung around 500 in the early going.

And the Braden Montgomery game, I think, was the first time I thought, these guys could win the division.

They could make the playoffs.

And, yeah, to clear it up because you want Antonacci leading off, especially against righties, that's going to be, all right, Ben Attendee, this is kind of the end of the road for you.

But I did cross my mind quickly that I wonder if they're still not 100% sure about Braden Montgomery in right field.

If there's like a little bit of a, yeah, maybe we'll bring someone in here just to like hang out.

Maybe someone who can hang out on the 40-man roster.

And they showed that by pressing forward with him, even in tough spots for him.

And I think that's part of it.

You know, we could talk about Braden Montgomery, how he didn't perform as well at the plate as you would think.

He's like the one guy that they didn't afford to be like, we're going to keep you away from this tough situation.

Didn't answer exactly what he can provide when he's fully healthy.

You know, Braden Montgomery still a work in progress.

Colson Montgomery is still kind of a mystery at this point, or if it's not a mystery, it's not a good story in terms of how he ended the season, the final two months.

So yeah, There are some open-ended questions, a lot of pitching questions about trying to fill out a starting rotation.

And again, we'll be going through the ARB eligible and impending free agents for the White Sox.

These are the decisions that you will have to make before you start signing players and making trades.

And I think the other challenge too is trying to take into consideration, like how many of these guys do you trust? Like, who are the ones that you're most worried about regression? Do you really trust Tristan Peters to duplicate his performance in center field? Do we have any idea, like with Braden Montgomery, he's going to be entering this offseason having to really work on his swing gym? I really don't know.

what you can count on him at this moment or be able to project for him in 2027.