Chicago had its own chance to answer — Sam Antonacci opened the sixth with a leadoff triple that went to waste after he got caught in a rundown — and the offense finished the night 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, its only run a second-inning sacrifice fly from Chase Meidroth. The Polymarket chat drew a season-high crowd for the series, and the room's busiest stretch of the night landed right around Burleson's double breaking the game open.
Montgomery's error was the costliest of the night, but it also fit a broader pattern — he's gone hitless in 6 of his last 7 games and has struck out at roughly a 40% clip since the All-Star break, a slump deep enough that it's put him on pace to challenge MLB's single-season strikeout record even with 26 home runs still on the year, per South Side Sox. He was blunt about the play itself afterward: you just have to make it.
The loss dropped Chicago to a half-game lead over Cleveland in a division race the White Sox have owned since late June, and the two clubs now head into a head-to-head series with the gap that tight. In the Polymarket room, one poster holding Chicago tried to talk up Munetaka Murakami before the Cardinals' bats did the deciding; another holding St. Louis was blunter once Burleson connected: "cash cash cash."