The Cleveland Guardians came from behind multiple times on the road in Game 4 of the ALDS on Thursday night to take down the Chicago White Sox, 9-5. With the win, the Guardians, after losing the first two games of the series at home, forced a fifth and deciding game back in Cleveland on Saturday night. The winner will move on to face the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS.
The Guardians fell behind 2-0 early and 4-3 after five as the White Sox looked to clinch the series in front of their home crowd. But Cleveland responded in a big way, pushing six across in the sixth to flip that one-run deficit into a five-run advantage. It was too much to overcome for the White Sox, who haven't clinched a postseason series at home since the 1906 World Series.
The White Sox are also 5-0 in potential road clinchers (excluding 2020, which weren't true road games as there were no fans) -- perhaps a good sign for Game 5. As for Game 4, here's how things went down.
Back-and-forth action in the middle innings
The White Sox had a 2-0 lead heading to the fifth inning and it sure looked like it would be a low-scoring night -- a common theme in this postseason where, entering Thursday night, teams that scored four-plus runs were 17-0. In the top of the fifth, though, Patrick Bailey hit a solo shot for the Guardians to cut the lead to 2-1. Then, José Ramírez crushed a two-run homer to greet White Sox reliever Jordan Hicks and flip the game to the Guardians' favor, 3-2.
The White Sox responded with a rally of their own. A leadoff walk and then a one-out walk set the table for Munetaka Murakami. He singled to left field to load the bases. Sam Antonacci was hit with a pitch to bring home one run and tie the game, 3-3. Brenton Doyle then hit a sacrifice fly to give the White Sox a 4-3 lead. Next, Kyle Teel drew a walk to reload the bases, but Guardians reliever Erik Sabrowski entered the game and struck Braden Montgomery out to end the threat.
It looked like a huge strikeout at the time. Little did we know just how huge.
Guardians blow things open in the sixth
With one out, Guardians left fielder Angel Martínez was hit with a pitch and then stole second. Travis Bazzana doubled him home and we were, as they say, off. Bailey would single home the go-ahead run. Then two walks followed to load the bases before Ramírez singled home another to make it 6-4 Guardians. Chase DeLauter singled to make it 7-4. The bases were still loaded.
Jo Adell, the midseason acquisition who had been an RBI machine for the Guardians -- including a three-RBI triple in Game 3 -- came through with a two-RBI single.
All of a sudden, it was a 9-4 Guardians lead. Cleveland coasted from there -- until the White Sox mounted a bit of a rally in the ninth. Miguel Vargas led off the frame with a home run, a blast that preceded a few more baserunners and prompted a pitching change that might have an impact on Game 5 (we'll get to that), but the Guardians escaped here.
The Guardians' offense was among the worst in baseball in the regular season and quiet at home to start the series with just three runs in two games. They have now scored nine runs apiece in the last two games and even hit two home runs in Game 4, their first two of the postseason.
Looking ahead to Game 5
The series has featured plenty of creative use of traditional starters and relievers alike. It's possible Game 5 would have been more of a traditional starting pitcher game.
But there are complications.
Gavin Williams should have and likely would have gotten the nod for the Guardians. He was 14-8 with a 3.76 ERA and an AL-best 248 strikeouts in 184 ⅓ innings in the regular season. He started in Game 2 of this series, and though the White Sox eventually prevailed, he allowed two runs in five innings with 11 strikeouts. The second run he was charged with was actually left behind, as he gave up a single and then was removed from the game. The bullpen allowed the runner to score.
The complication here is that Williams was summoned to finish Game 4. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt had already used six relievers before going to closer Cade Smith in the eighth. Smith threw two innings in Game 3. Once Smith gave up a home run to lead off the ninth, Vogt didn't want to take any chances and went to Williams, who threw 18 pitches to close things down.
The Guardians' plans for Game 5 are now in question. Williams certainly can start, but may not be able to go as deep into the game. Parker Messick was burned as the starter in Game 4. Tanner Bibee is a traditional starter and hasn't started in the postseason. He came in relief in Game 4 and was bad, but only threw 15 pitches. Foster Griffin threw 53 pitches in Game 3.
On the White Sox's end, the guy would be Sean Burke, at least eventually. In Game 2, the White Sox started Anthony Kay and removed him after one-third of an inning for Sean Newcomb. Burke came in next and worked 5 ⅓ innings, giving up only one run on one hit while striking out six. He'll get the bulk of the outs in Game 5, as he hasn't pitched since Game 2.
In the regular season, he was 11-7 with a 3.34 ERA and 185 strikeouts in 172 ⅓ innings.
So, to recap, it should've been a matchup between Williams and Burke, but things have been so mucked up the rest of the series that we can't be sure exactly what we're going to see.
Maybe the answer is chaos and that's always fun to the outside observer.
Guardians looking to join exclusive company
In MLB playoff history, 10 teams have fallen behind two games to none in a best-of-five series and come back to win the series. The most recent came in 2017 when this Cleveland franchise had a 2-0 lead over the Yankees, only for the Yankees to come back and win.
If we're looking for a team that fell down 2-0 at home and then came back to win two road games before closing things out at home in Game 5, we'd need to go back to 2015, when the Blue Jays lost two games at home to the Rangers, won two in Texas and then had that monster seventh inning in Game 5 with the famous Jose Bautista bat flip.
In fact, that is the only time in this format that a team fell behind by losing two home games and went on to win the series. The Guardians will look to join those 2015 Blue Jays.
