Guardians Blank White Sox in Game 5, Complete ALDS Comeback

CLEVELAND — The Guardians ALDS comeback is complete. Cleveland blanked the Chicago White Sox 2-0 in a decisive Game 5 on Saturday night at Progressive Field, erasing a 2-0 series deficit to punch a ticket to the American League Championship Series.

The Guardians did it with pitching — historic pitching. Cleveland pitchers struck out 21 White Sox batters, a record for a nine-inning postseason game, in the win that completed the comeback. Chicago managed only three hits and put just nine balls in play all night, the Associated Press reported.

Cleveland became only the fourth team to win a best-of-five postseason series after losing the first two games at home.

Guardians ALDS comeback: Game 5 belonged to the pitching staff

Starter Gavin Williams was dominant from the first pitch, tying Charles Nagy’s franchise postseason record with 12 strikeouts over 5⅔ scoreless innings. He allowed one hit, walked two, and hit a batter. It was his second heroic turn in three days: two nights after saving Game 4, Williams became the third pitcher in postseason history to record the last out of one game and start the next — with his team facing elimination in both, according to RG.

The bullpen finished the job. Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis, and Cade Smith combined to get the final 10 outs, striking out nine of them in a combined three-hitter.

• Guardians win 2-0 in Game 5 to take the ALDS 3-2.
• 21 strikeouts: a nine-inning postseason record.
• Gavin Williams: 12 strikeouts, tying the franchise postseason record.
• Jose Ramirez’s two-run homer in the fourth provided all the scoring.
• Cleveland faces the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS, starting Monday in St. Petersburg.

Ramirez delivers the game’s only runs

Jose Ramirez provided all the offense Cleveland needed, golfing a two-run home run off White Sox starter Sean Burke in the fourth inning. The 78-mph knuckle curve was well below the strike zone — 8.88 inches off the ground, the lowest pitch hit for a postseason home run since at least 2008 and the lowest of Ramirez’s career — but the veteran star hooked it 348 feet over the right-field wall, scoring Steven Kwan, who had led off the inning with the game’s first hit.

Ramirez finished the series with seven RBIs over the final three games, driving in the runs that fueled the entire comeback.

How the comeback happened

The series looked over after Chicago stunned Cleveland in the first two games at Progressive Field, 3-0 and 4-3. But the Guardians roared back on the road in Chicago, winning Game 3 9-3 — a game in which reliever Foster Griffin set a franchise postseason record with seven strikeouts — and taking Game 4 9-5 behind a six-run sixth inning that included a go-ahead double from Travis Bazzana and homers from Patrick Bailey and Ramirez.

Across the five games, Guardians pitchers struck out 75 White Sox hitters — a Division Series record, shattering the previous mark of 64, per CBS Sports.

What players and coaches said

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said it had been a difficult year and that being one step from the World Series — the team’s ultimate goal — was really exciting. Williams praised his third baseman simply: Jose is Jose, he always has that one moment.

White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery said the club was bummed and sad, knowing it probably should have gotten the job done. Starter Sean Burke called the home run to Ramirez frustrating, noting the pitch was nearly in the dirt: “Obviously, it came down to one pitch to Ramirez.”

Next up: the ALCS

The Guardians will meet the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Championship Series, with Game 1 set for Monday in St. Petersburg, Florida. The winner advances to the World Series.

After a comeback this dramatic — and pitching this dominant — Cleveland arrives at the ALCS playing its best baseball of the season at exactly the right time.