The feel-good story of the 2026 season, at least on a team level, is arguably the Chicago White Sox. You know, the team that was parked in No. 30 in these Power Rankings the last umpteen weeks of 2024 and was at or near the bottom for most of 2025. They looked like a feisty bunch early this season and then started hanging around first place in June and July before building a lead as big as 5 ½ games in August.
That lead is now down to a half game, as the Sox just finished a 1-5 week against the Pirates and Cardinals. They still sit in first place, but it might not be for long. The Guardians don't exactly seem enthused at trying to win the division as they do more often than not these days, given that they only went 3-3 last week, but it's been enough to thrust them up right in the White Sox's rearview mirror so aggressively that it is fogging up.
And now, it's a head-to-head battle.
The Guardians host the White Sox for a three-game series starting on Monday.
So far this season, the White Sox lead the season series, 6-4, so they'll retain the tiebreaker as long as they avoid a sweep in Cleveland. If the Guardians win two of three, however, they'll overtake the White Sox for first place in the division. The White Sox haven't been anywhere but first since a July 3 loss to the Guardians.
After that one, the White Sox's chances to win the AL Central, per FanGraphs, were just 21.7%. They climbed all the way up to 80.0% through Aug. 28, but things have plummeted back down. Today, it's a virtual toss-up. The Guardians, meanwhile, were as high as 72.6% (June 2), but saw their chances fall as low as 12.7% (Aug. 18). Now, the division is right there for the taking. They just need to take care of business in a home series and then hold onto the lead after that.
The White Sox responded to that aforementioned loss in early July by winning two games in Cleveland and haven't lost hold of that top spot since.
Will things change this week? We'll find out starting Monday night. It is a must-watch series as the feel-good story looks to keep the positive vibes they've had nearly all season, just two years removed from a historically wretched campaign.
Biggest Movers 5 Pirates 4 Astros RkTeams ChgRcrd 1
Brewers Through 11 starts, Kyle Harrison looked like an ace, sitting with a 1.57 ERA. The Brewers now officially have a Kyle Harrison problem, though. He has a 20.86 ERA in his last three starts and on Saturday didn't even record an out in relief while coughing up four runs on four hits. The rotation holds up fine without him for the rest of the regular season, but I now have concerns about the playoffs once you get past Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson. -- 93-57 2 
Dodgers From an eight-game winning streak to losing a series to the Marlins. They're fine, though. The 162-game regular season is basically their warm-up period. -- 90-59 3 
Rays Remember when I said the Rays would fix Freddy Peralta? He's only given up two runs on 10 hits in his last four starts, a stretch of 23 innings. He's 4-0 in those four outings. -- 90-59 4 
Yankees Gerrit Cole has given up seven home runs in his last two starts. He had only given up six in his previous 11 starts combined. 1 86-63 5 
Braves They only had a four-game lead in the NL East with the Phillies visiting for three, but the Braves took care of business and won the series. It's overwhelmingly likely they hold that lead now. 1 88-62 6 
Phillies I know he said he's not concerned, but I am concerned about Jesús Luzardo needing to miss a start due to a shoulder issue. -- 83-67 7 
Cubs At least they don't have to go to Milwaukee again. Well, unless they make the NLDS. Gulp. 1 83-67 8 
Padres Here they come again. That's seven straight wins after they had lost eight of 11. Can they keep cooking or will another bad stretch hit? 2 81-68 9 
Red Sox Will Garrett Crochet, lockdown reliever, arrive for the playoffs? That would be fun. 2 82-68 10 
Diamondbacks It was nice to see Corbin Burnes return and he threw three scoreless innings. He has enough time to get up to a full outing before the playoffs -- but the Diamondbacks have work to do on that front. 1 79-71 11 
Guardians Gavin Williams leads the AL with 228 strikeouts. If you're wondering about the club record, well, don't. Bob Feller struck out 348 in 1946. 3 76-74 12 
Pirates Heading into the season, if we had known the Pirates would be 62-58 when Paul Skenes doesn't start, we'd think they were a playoff team, right? Or at least really close? But they're 13-17 in his starts. 5 75-75 13 
White Sox We've been concerned about the rotation for a while, but the offense has scored a combined nine runs in their last five losses. 1 76-73 14 
Blue Jays That home run Sunday by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was his first this season at home. It was his 68th home game. In 2022, he hit 19 homers in that ballpark. 1 75-75 15 
Astros With three straight losses, the first-place Astros are at exactly .500. The worst record in history for a division winner was 82-80 (2005 Padres). 4 75-75 16 
Rangers Nathan Eovaldi skipped a rehab assignment in his return from injury and is instead a multi-inning reliever for the time being. He could well make for a very useful weapon as the Rangers look to pull off the unlikely division title. 2 74-76 17 
Cardinals It's still possible to finish .500 or better, but if the Cardinals finish below, it would mark the third time in the last four seasons. That hasn't happened in full seasons since 1954-59, when they did so in five of six. 2 74-76 18 
Marlins Agustín Ramírez has pretty much had a disaster of a season, but that pinch-hit, walk-off bomb against the Dodgers on Sunday was awesome. 2 74-76 19 
Orioles Pete Alonso leads the AL in RBI this season. He led the NL in 2022. -- 72-78 20 
Tigers Remember when Dillon Dingler was one of the best hitting catchers in baseball? He's totally fallen apart. In his last 28 games, he's 13 for 106 (.123) with one home run, three walks and 32 strikeouts. 4 70-79 21 
Mets The Mets have won seven of their last 10 games. 2 69-80 22 
Reds In his last 20 games, Elly De La Cruz is hitting .426 with nine doubles and six home runs in 82 at-bats. 2 70-79 23 
Twins They entered August with a winning record. Since the beginning of August, however, the Twins are 14-24. 2 70-79 24 
Mariners The Mariners are only five games out of first place. They've gone 2-5 against the A's this month. 2 70-80 25 
Nationals The Nats lead the majors with 166 stolen bases. No other team has more than 150. -- 70-81 26 
Royals Bobby Witt Jr. has accumulated more than 6.0 WAR for the third straight season, now at age 26. The only other Royals with three 6-WAR seasons before their age-27 year are Willie Wilson and George Brett. Witt is the only one to do it consecutively. -- 66-84 27 
Giants The Giants are doing their part to get more NL West teams in the playoffs. They are 7-19 against the Padres and D-backs. -- 62-88 28 
Athletics The A's are 25-21 against fellow AL West foes, with a winning record against each of the other four teams. They are 36-68 outside the division. -- 61-89 29 
Angels This franchise was born as the California Angels in 1965. It has never seen a 100-loss season. The Angels need to go 7-6 the rest of the way to avoid 100 losses this time around. 1 56-93 30 
Rockies They've lost seven in a row, matching their longest losing streak of the season. 1 55-94 Add CBS Sports on Google Join the Conversation comments 
