HOUSTON -- For Chicago White Sox fans old enough, the postgame celebration on the field Wednesday at Daikin Park was heavy with some familiar notes to a similar scene nearly 21 years ago. Yet, familiarity aside, so much was different.
The young White Sox continued their storybook run through the 2026 season with a convincing 7-3 win over the Houston Astros, ending their AL wild-card series in two convincing games. The win marked Chicago's first postseason series victory since 2005, a drought exceeded in MLB by only the Cincinnati Reds.
It was not supposed to happen, at least not this soon. Not for a team just two years removed from a record 121-loss season. Not for a team so young and so inexperienced.
"We've got a young, hungry group, some veteran guys that we lean on," second baseman Chase Meidroth said. "But it's been the same all year. We believe we can win every game."
The last time Chicago clinched a playoff series, on Oct. 26, 2005, it was in the same ballpark, then called Minute Maid Park, also against the Astros, and it ended with venerable owner Jerry Reinsdorf celebrating with his team in the aftermath.
All of that happened again Tuesday, as the 90-year-old Reinsdorf was on hand to watch his team made up of players mostly too young to remember that long-gone championship night in Houston. That's literally true -- Chicago used nine players against the Astros in the series who were kindergarten age or younger the last time the White Sox recorded a playoff series victory.
"I'm really proud and I'm really just happy for everybody who over the last few years experienced White Sox baseball when it wasn't at its best," manager Will Venable said. "It's such a storied franchise and Jerry puts so much into this team. To be able to reward him and the city of Chicago, it just feels really good."
One of those too-young-to-remember players, Meidroth, came up with the series-icing blow. Meidroth launched a three-run homer off of Astros reliever Bryan Abreu in the sixth inning, giving the White Sox a four-run buffer just minutes after Houston appeared to be poised to go ahead in the bottom of the fifth.
In that inning, after the Astros had narrowed what had been a 4-0 deficit to 4-3, Houston put two runners on base with AL MVP favorite Yordan Álvarez striding to the plate. Venable popped out of the dugout to summon lefty Anthony Kay, who had worked almost entirely as a starter during the regular season.
"You're in a tough spot where you don't really want to walk [Álvarez] in that situation," Venable said. "We thought that our best chance was to fire Anthony Kay against him."
Kay retired Álvarez on a sharply hit fly ball for the second out of the inning. It continued a rough two days for the star slugger, who went 1-for-8 in the two games, including 0-for-4 on Wednesday. Isaac Paredes then walked to load the bases for Jose Altuve, the seasoned playoff star who homered earlier in the game. It was Altuve's 28th career postseason homer, one shy of Manny Ramirez's MLB record.
The Houston crowed roared accordingly, bringing some rare life to the ballpark after two disappointing evenings full of mistake-filled baseball by the Astros. But Kay retired Altuve on a fly to right, leaving the bases full.
"It was a gamble," Venable said. "Obviously, Álvarez hit that ball really hard. It paid off."
That set the stage for Meidroth, who came to the plate with two runners on and nobody out. With the Astros badly in need of a strikeout, the tough Abreu was brought in to face him.
On the first two offerings from Abreu, Meidroth showed bunt. According to Venable, the initial intent was not to sacrifice but to give speedy baserunners Luisangel Acuña and Tristan Peters a chance to steal. Meidroth's bunt feints were convincing enough to draw in Houston third baseman Nick Allen, who couldn't get back to the bag fast enough as Acuña slid headfirst into third, and Peters behind him into second on a successful double steal.
Then Meidroth barreled up an Abreu slider, homering off the facade above the White Sox bullpen, breaking the game open. Venable said that if the double steal wouldn't have happened, Meidroth would have been asked to put down a sacrifice bunt. Instead, he was free to swing.
"I was looking for something middle up," Meidroth said. "He's had my number all year. Really good fastball. I got something middle up, and I was able to cash in for the team. Yeah, that was awesome."
The sequence typified an offensive approach that helped Chicago score an AL-best 776 runs this season. Chicago ranked fifth overall in homers, but rarely did Venable allow his club to sit around and wait for them to happen.
"It's really about us just finding ways, and that's been really kind of the mantra for us all year," Venable said. "Whether it's on the mound, defensively, or at the plate, just find a way."
That way is now pointed toward the Cleveland Guardians and the ALDS. A two-decade playoff drought is over, snapped by a team so young that it doesn't seem to know that the ceiling for a club this young and only one year removed from a third-straight 100-loss season isn't supposed to be this high.
Now, instead of another celebration on the road, one in which the team could be heard chanting "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" on the field in honor of their longtime owner, Chicago might get a chance to do a little dancing at home.
"It means everything for our fans," Meidroth said. "They have been incredible all year. So the main thing was getting back to Chicago for some postseason baseball. We're really blessed that we get to do that."