World Series died last night as the Cubs lost their wild-card series to the San Diego Padres.

But October baseball is in full swing on the South side.

>> The White Sox finished off a two-game sweep of the Houston Astros yesterday behind a hot first inning and a three-run home run from chase.

My drop in the 6th.

Next up, they'll face division rivals the Cleveland Guardians in a best of 5 series that starts Saturday.

Joining us now is Jeff Miller, the Prairie and post-game host for White Sox radio broadcast on ESPN, Chicago.

Welcome back.

How you feel feeling good.

Just like most White Sox fans.

It has been a fabulous 48 hours brands.

All right.

I'm sure very, very wet in the locker room for the White Sox last night.

Lots of champagne.

I'm pitching, hitting fielding.

What do you think it was that made the difference in the Houston series.

So it's kind of crazy because I think if you look at both the White Sox and Cubs, it's kind of a difference.

It's night and day.

>> The and both literally and figuratively here because the White Sox play their games during the day and the Cubs played at night in Petco and the White Sox certainly benefited from the fact that in Houston that was a dead stadium.

I think the fans were kind of disenchanted with the astro's to the point where the players were.

Actually the Houston players were actually criticizing their fans for bundling them after game one.

So I think the White Sox took advantage in the fact that you mentioned they jumped out early right.

The White Sox did that.

They actually lead in every inning of all a team that they, you know, they won the first 2 games.

So the fact that they did that to the first team to ever do that in baseball history now, part of that's the product of a short series.

But nevertheless, that gave them an advantage.

And the Astros just never really bounce back.

So got tons of next in the White Sox won regular regular season series against the Guardians of 7 games to 6.

>> What can learn from those matchups?

I think what you can look at is that it was one game that the White Sox were better than the guardians.

>> And clearly it was a close series all season long.

The difference in runs scored throughout those 13 games was very minimal.

And these teams know each other extremely well.

And the White Sox when they brought their power to their games and hit home runs, they generally fared better than the guardians.

The Guardians have great pitching, And so the White Sox just like they did all throughout the season.

And in this short playoff series, they have to piece it together with relievers, it's something we talked about the other day.

They did so successfully against Houston.

The Guardian's don't have a great offense.

So the White Sox know that.

But at the same time, the guardians do the little things well, and so they're not going to make some of the same mistakes that the Astros made that helped the White Sox out all records wise the Astros.

They weren't the toughest opponent necessarily.

They had the worst regular season record of any playoff team in history.

Do you think that, you know, does that take anything away from the White Sox?

I don't think so.

Because the truth is that.

>> This is the White Sox first playoff series win in 21 years.

Coincidentally enough, the last time they won was in 2005 in Houston.

We know how far the White Sox were.

And in terms of being away from the playoffs, 3 consecutive losing seasons where they lost over 100 games.

So Jerry Reinsdorf the White chairman yesterday mentioned how this was even aggressive for him in terms of timelines.

He thought 2027 was more realistic in terms of the White Sox being a playoff competitor.

So even though the Astros were a great team this year, I don't think the White Sox have anything to apologize for taking advantage of the fixed the situation and honestly doing so in dominating fashion.

>> Will Venable.

He now has one playoff series under his belt as a manager with great.

Do you think he gets for the series for the series?

I think you have to give him an a they come through.

They do it in quick fashion.

2 games, which is beneficial because this Guardian series, the White Sox get the extra day off.

Had they been playing today, they would have had to text their bullpen even more.

>> And that's something that if they're going to win, they're probably going to need their pitchers to pitch well here against Cleveland.

the fact that they were able to do what they did in 2 games.

Huge advantage for that.

So I give him an a and again, it just I think anybody watch the celebrations last night.

You mentioned how it was a wet locker room.

You can see that this team truly does embrace this, you know, underdog mentality that they have, but they have fun with each other and Will Venable.

It starts with him.

>> flip side of that because, you know, you mentioned at the Sox are gonna get that extra day off.

The guardians are coming off a week of rest.

Yeah.

What weaknesses of the Sox were the guardians be looking to attack?

So I think again, it goes back to the fact that they know the White Sox starting pitching isn't particularly deep.

And so if they can kind of flip the script on the White Sox and get an early lead.

That'll put more pressure on the White Sox.

That's something that I think you see in baseball, especially at playoff time.

The teams that score early, there's this extra pressure and all these big moments where baseball's not necessarily a sport where you can go out and try harder and be more successful.

You have to kind of calm down do what you do and know that, hey, if I squeeze the bag too tightly here, this is not going to help me.

And so that extra pressure when you're down.

Can you know, in some ways exponentially become a problem.

So I would say that the key for the White Sox is to continue to play well in these early situations and get early lead.

And I think they'll definitely benefit from that.

You mentioned the White Sox pitching a few times.

You know, how do you think the rotation is gonna hold up?

I don't know because they're doing this in a fashion that I don't think you can really ever look to the history of baseball and say, hey, team has won in this fashion.

It's just something that we haven't seen before.

But again, they have 13 pretty good pictures when used in short 2 inning stance, maybe 3 inning stance and can you do that over the course of an entire October?

I don't know.

We really haven't seen it happen like this before.

But the White Sox are just gonna continue to try and find a way.

And so I think we're all gonna learn about it together.

>> White Sox have they've got quite a few young players in their starting lineup.

What opportunities does the series have for Well, I think the opportunities are that in these moments you have an opportunity to introduce yourself to the national stage.

White Sox fans have gotten to know players like see Minton actually chase my draft.

Tristan Peters all season long.

Want to talk him our economy.

He's I think a little bit more.

Well Nat well known nationally, especially after his champagne celebrations the last couple of times.

But the truth is that a lot of people who follow baseball at a national level are very familiar with the White Sox.

Oh, this is an opportunity for this team to prove to the rest of baseball that they're not some cute underdog story that is going to go out in the Division series.

They can actually go and make names for themselves with another series win they're only been a handful of playoff games on the South side in the last what, 20 years.

What do you expect the atmosphere to be like for those home games and they get started?

You know, it's I'm glad you bring that up because I think that's something that was an extra motivator for this team.

Mike vessel who has become the unofficial team mascot.

She has embraced, by the way, he's dealing with Tommy He's returning from Tommy John surgery.

So because of that, he hasn't been able to pitch all season long, but he was somebody who that he wanted an inside the clubhouse because they knew how critical he was.

He has talked about how they wanted to make sure that they brought playoff baseball to Chicago.

Not just watching it, but having the opportunity to go ahead see it firsthand at right field on Wednesday and if necessary on Thursday of next week.

I think it's going to be rocking at Rayfield once that time comes slow say the path to the World Series might look like for the White Sox.

I think the path is just continue to do what they do with these relievers and I don't see why they can't repeat what they've done so far.

Again, it's unorthodox, but you have.

Players like Hagen Smith Grant Taylor, who even though they using this really for all, they're doing more than just an inning.

And that's not that's where it's different different than what we've seen in the past.

You know, if they go 2 or 3 innings, you can maybe ask them to pitch in 2 or 3 games in a short series.

And again, they are impact times that are good enough that they can shut down teams in those short stance.

The question is if there are a too much, well,