The Cleveland Guardians extended their win streak to three in a row with Saturday’s win over the Miami Marlins and will look to complete their first four-game streak in nearly two months on Sunday before hitting the All-Star break. The win allowed them to keep pace with the pesky Chicago White Sox, who have really come into their own this season and finally found some success on the other side of their most recent rebuild.
With the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers waking up over the past few weeks, the fans are in for a fun second half with the division crown so up in the air. Cleveland was much farther back around this time last year while the White Sox were dead and buried, so it’s going to be a fun little rekindling of their rivalry down the stretch.
To make matters even more interesting, the bloodlines are now mixing as Jim Thome’s son, Landon, was drafted by the Sox with the 34th overall pick on Saturday. That will surely make a lot of fans feel old, as it wasn’t long ago Thome was hitting dingers for both the Guardians and White Sox en route to 600+ homers and a Hall of Fame bid.
“Landon Thome, son of Hall of Famer Jim Thome, is headed to the @whitesox with the 34th pick!,” MLB Network wrote.
Landon Thome, son of Hall of Famer Jim Thome, is headed to the @whitesox with the 34th pick!
📺 MLB Network pic.twitter.com/zQ0zpAAHHa
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) July 11, 2026
Thome is an 18-year-old shortstop out of Nazareth Academy in Illinois, and it’s no surprise whatsoever that the White Sox had him targeted on their board. Jim Thome is a member of their front office and works side by side with GM Chris Getz, so they were all over this well before draft day.
Jim Thome may be most fondly remembered as a Guardian, but he did spend parts of four years with the White Sox, who clearly made a great impression on him. You have to be thrilled for his son, but it still stings a little bit knowing that there is potentially another Thome lurking to stick it to the Guardians for many years to come.
While not quite as big as his father, he has that same powerful lefty stroke that had scouts salivating.
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