Comeback in Cleveland: A glimpse of meaningful Septembers to come for rebuilding White Sox

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Coming into Tuesday night's game in Cleveland, the White Sox were 17 games below .500 and riding a seven-game losing streak, eliminating the possibility for the thrills of a final-month playoff chase.

But if the White Sox are able to shift from rebuilding mode to contending mode next season, Tuesday night served as an exciting preview of what meaningful September baseball could one day look like for the South Siders.

The Indians are playing meaningful games right now, attempting to chase down the Minnesota Twins for the AL Central crown. The White Sox might not care about playing "spoiler" in these final weeks, but that's what they did, delivering one of their more exciting wins of the 2019 campaign thanks to some clutch clubbing from James McCann and Eloy Jimenez.

The story of the night looked like it was going to be Dylan Cease, who set a career high with 11 strikeouts in one of his finer outings as a big leaguer prior to issuing a pair of two-out walks in the seventh inning. Manager Rick Renteria came to get him in an effort to preserve the 2-all tie, but the third pitch out of the hand of replacement Evan Marshall was smoked by Roberto Perez for a three-run homer, a seeming back-breaker.

But facing Carlos Carrasco in the eighth, the White Sox staged their comeback. After the first two hitters reached, Jose Abreu and Yoan Moncada both struck out. But McCann followed by crushing a clutch, game-tying, three-run dinger into the left-field seats, and Jimenez followed by lifting a solo homer — his second of the game — out to right field. Just like that, the White Sox went from down three to ahead by a run.

Aaron Bummer and Alex Colome took care of business on the mound as the White Sox secured the victory.

This season has been full of promising signs, and one night of long balls won't outweigh the season-long developments of the team's young core players in terms of 2020 importance.

But an evening featuring two homers from Jimenez, 11 strikeouts from Cease, a clutch dinger from McCann and a triple from Zack Collins — four guys who will all be part of rosters in 2020 and beyond — serves as a mighty fine preview of what could be coming as soon as next September.

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