CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Guardians punched their ticket to the American League Championship Series on Saturday night, defeating the Chicago White Sox 2-0 in a winner-take-all Game 5 at Progressive Field.
With the victory, Cleveland finished off an improbable comeback, taking three consecutive elimination games after dropping the opening two contests of the best-of-five series at home. Yahoo Sports reported that the Guardians became the first major-league club since the 2017 New York Yankees to rally from a 2-0 deficit in a division series.
Dominance on the Mound
Guardians starter Gavin Williams set the tone on the mound just two days after making his first professional relief appearance to finish Game 4 in Chicago. The 27-year-old right-hander struck out 12 batters over 5 2/3 scoreless innings, matching the franchise single-game postseason record established by Charles Nagy in 1996, according to Yahoo Sports.
Williams carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Chicago catcher Kyle Teel singled with two outs. A walk loaded the bases, prompting Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt to summon left-hander Erik Sabrowski, who struck out cleanup batter Munetaka Murakami to extinguish the threat.
“You don’t know how somebody’s going to respond to the workload,” Vogt said following the celebration, as reported by Yahoo Sports. “And he just kept getting better and better and better.”
Cleveland relievers Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith followed by stifling Chicago over the final frames. In total, the Guardians’ staff compiled 21 strikeouts on the night, setting an all-time major-league record for any nine-inning game, Yahoo Sports and the Chicago Tribune reported. Across the five games, Chicago hitters struck out 75 times, establishing a new postseason series record, according to Roundtable Sports.
Ramírez Delivers the Decisive Swing
Chicago starter Sean Burke matched Williams early, retiring the first nine batters he faced. Burke yielded two runs on four hits across five innings, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Cleveland broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning. Steven Kwan opened with a single to right field, and third baseman José Ramírez followed by golfing a low knuckle-curve from Burke over the right-field wall for a two-run homer before an announced sellout crowd of 36,889.
“He had everything going tonight,” Guardians second baseman Travis Bazzana said of Williams, according to Yahoo Sports. “Didn’t have to worry about fielding. It was just, ‘strike 3, strike 3, strike 3.'”
The loss concluded a turnaround campaign for the White Sox, who suffered over 100 losses in each of the past three seasons before capturing a wild-card sweep over the Houston Astros, the Chicago Tribune reported. Chicago placed the tying run on base in both the seventh and eighth innings but failed to score.
What Comes Next
The Guardians now travel south to open the ALCS against the Tampa Bay Rays. Game 1 is scheduled for Monday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
