All Square: The Guardians Storm Back to Force Game 5 Against the White Sox
Chicago was one win from the ALCS. Two Cleveland blowouts later, everything comes down to Saturday night.
On Monday night, the White Sox left Cleveland up 2–0 and one win away from their first ALCS since 2005. Three days later, the series is tied 2–2. The Guardians won Game 3 by a score of 9–3 and Game 4 by 9–5, both in Chicago, and now the two AL Central rivals play a winner-take-all Game 5 at Progressive Field on Saturday. The winner heads to Tampa Bay to face the Rays in the ALCS.
So who's actually been the better team? It depends on which half of the series you watch.
By the numbers
2–2
Series tied heading to Game 5
21–15
Total runs, Guardians vs. White Sox
19
White Sox strikeouts in Game 3
6
Guardians runs in the 6th inning of Game 4
Game by game
Game 1 · Sat., Oct. 3 · Progressive Field
White Sox 3, Guardians 0
Five White Sox pitchers combined on a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts. Munetaka Murakami crushed a 440-foot, two-run homer in the fourth, and Grant Taylor closed it out with a career-high six strikeouts. Cleveland loaded the bases with two outs in both the third and fourth innings and came away with nothing.
Game 2 · Mon., Oct. 5 · Progressive Field
White Sox 4, Guardians 3
Cleveland jumped out to a 2–0 lead in the first, helped by a wild throw from Sean Newcomb. Gavin Williams struck out 11 for the Guardians, but in the sixth a wild pitch put two runners in scoring position, and Braden Montgomery made Cleveland pay with a two-run double. Sean Burke was brilliant in relief, allowing one hit over 5⅓ innings.
Game 3 · Wed., Oct. 7 · Rate Field
Guardians 9, White Sox 3
With their season on the line, the Guardians finally broke through. Jo Adell's bases-loaded triple in the third flipped the game, and José Ramírez, hitless in the first two games, doubled, stole third, scored on a headfirst slide and later tripled in two more runs. Reliever Foster Griffin struck out seven, a Cleveland franchise record for a reliever in a postseason game.
Game 4 · Thu., Oct. 8 · Rate Field
Guardians 9, White Sox 5
Chicago led 2–0 before Patrick Bailey's pinch-hit homer and a two-run blast from Ramírez in the fifth. The White Sox answered to go back up 4–3, but in the sixth, Travis Bazzana's RBI double tied it and Cleveland piled on for a six-run inning. Grant Taylor, the Game 1 hero, faced six batters and didn't record an out.
Who's made the better plays?
White Sox
- Munetaka Murakami's 440-foot homer in Game 1 and his RBI single in Game 2
- Braden Montgomery's two-run double to swing Game 2
- Sean Burke's 5⅓ innings of one-hit relief in Game 2
- Grant Taylor's six-strikeout save in Game 1
Guardians
- José Ramírez doing everything in Games 3 and 4: a double, a stolen base, a triple and a two-run homer
- Jo Adell's bases-loaded triple in Game 3
- Foster Griffin's record seven strikeouts in relief in Game 3
- Patrick Bailey's pinch-hit homer off the bench in Game 4
Early on, Chicago won with pitching and timely hits. Cleveland loaded the bases twice in Game 1 without scoring and managed only three runs in the first two games. Since then, the script has flipped: the White Sox struck out 19 times in Game 3 and went 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position, and their bullpen has given up big innings in back-to-back games.
The mistakes have mattered too. Newcomb's wild throw handed Cleveland a run in Game 2, and a Guardians wild pitch set up Montgomery's double. In Game 4, Chicago's walks came back to haunt them. As White Sox manager Will Venable put it: "When you walk guys, they make you pay."
The economics of it
This series is a lesson in scarcity. The White Sox built their season on the bullpen, using a major league-high 11 bullpen games during the regular season. That strategy works, but relief arms are a limited resource. Every inning Grant Taylor threw in Games 1 and 2 was an inning he couldn't get back, and by Game 4 the fatigue showed.
Economists call this diminishing marginal returns: each extra unit of an input produces less than the one before. A rested Taylor struck out six in Game 1. A tired Taylor didn't get an out in Game 4. For Game 5, the team that best manages its remaining pitching, not necessarily the team with the best pitchers, probably moves on.
What's at stake in Game 5
Game 5 is Saturday, October 10, at 8 p.m. ET at Progressive Field. Starters hadn't been announced as of Thursday night, though Gavin Williams, who struck out 11 in Game 2, is a possibility for Cleveland. The winner opens the ALCS at Tampa Bay on Monday.
For Chicago, there's history on the line too. The White Sox haven't clinched a postseason series at home since the 1906 World Series. Now they'll have to clinch this one on the road.
My unfiltered take
Momentum is real in October, and right now it's wearing a Guardians jersey. But Cleveland's offense was nearly invisible for two games, and Chicago's pitching proved it can shut them down when it's fresh. I'm watching one thing on Saturday: how deep each team's starter goes. If the White Sox can keep their tired bullpen off the field until late, they have a real shot. If not, Cleveland's bats look ready to finish the comeback.
Landrey
