​Munetaka Murakami was the worst member of an insipid White Sox offense in Saturday’s elimination loss. | Getty Images The requiem for the 2026 White Sox season many of us expected to write as long as six months ago finally did arrive. That it came in October marks this an outstanding season, no matter how flat the finale flopped.The primary reason for this 2-0 loss? I won’t even give you three guesses.As much of a nemesis as he is to the White Sox, in this must-win game for Cleveland José Ramírez provided the early but fatal blow, in the fourth inning. After taking two high strikes and seeing four pitches overall above the zone, Ramírez shifted to protect mode, shortened up his swing, and used a defensive swing to take a ball off of his toes out to left field for a two-run homer:View LinkLet’s take another look at the outrageously-effective curve from Sean Burke that Ramírez golfed out:As much as you should never tip your cap to Ramírez, on this one, you gotta tip your cap to Ramírez.Ditto Gavin Williams, who came into Game 5 presumably a bit winded after a surprise “close” of Game 4 in Chicago. But winded Williams was not, absolutely mowing down the White Sox over 5 ⅔ hitless innings. As much as the usual White Sox offensive adjustments when things aren’t going well and the Ks are piling up — that is to say, no adjustments whatsover — aided GW, he was masterful in his own right. Whereas in five previous starts against the White Sox, to a one Williams wore down and got touched up (3.98 ERA in 2026 vs. the South Siders in the regular season, and hardly better in Game 2). In a game where Williams would have been forgiven by just scraping by with four or five innings, he went strong and deep into the game, and made the White Sox look as bad as they have all year. And yes, 5 ⅔ hitless is the longest no-hit start in Cleveland postseason history.However, the plot line between the White Sox and Williams held firm even tonight, as the fireballer could get just two outs into the sixth before a hit batsman, a soft single from Kyle Teel and a walk to Miguel Vargas packed the sacks as Cleveland called for rescue with reliever Eric Sabrowski.The southpaw was summoned to face Munetaka Murakami, who perhaps was not told Williams was out of the game, because as 12 White Sox had already done against the starter this game, Mune essentially swung through anything below his shoulders against this new arm as well, for a back-breaking K ending the only true threat of the game for the Pale Hose:View LinkAt that point, the White Sox had racked up 13 strikeouts through six innings, somehow closer to hunting their nine-inning playoff game strikeout record of 19 than the Guardians in the run column. Given the excellent pitching performances from starter Sean Burke and first man in Sean Newcomb, the game was close all the way. Down just 2-0, pretty much any baserunner meant a possible game-changing rally for the White Sox, and by that low bar Chica