The White Sox have spent their margin already. After taking the first two games of the ALDS, they’ve now dropped two straight to the Guardians, and Game 5 decides everything: win here and they keep rolling toward St.
Petersburg for an ALCS date with the Rays on Monday. Lose, and the season ends tonight.
That puts the spotlight squarely on Sean Burke, with Will Venable leaning on a bullpen mix that still includes Sean Newcomb and Grant Taylor in key roles. Taylor’s last outing was rough - he didn’t retire any of the six batters he faced on Thursday - but Venable made it clear he isn’t backing away from him.
"I don't think anyone wanted that last outing to go like that. But I think the belief in Grant-- I should rephrase that. Not I think, my belief in Grant is as high as it's ever been.
"He has been our guy the entire year. He's the guy every single game in which we are in a tough spot that we put in when he's available.
And when he's not available, we wish he was. And so that's not going to change today just because of one outing.
"We know that they're having really good at-bats against Grant, and there's going to be adjustments that he's going to have to make from hitter to hitter. He's going to go to work on that and be in a good spot to go out and get the job done tonight."
The way things have gone, the Sox probably need more than two relievers anyway, so the exact order may not matter much. Still, the matchup feels like it could push Venable into a deeper bullpen chain than he’d prefer.
The White Sox also made a notable change in the outfield. Braden Montgomery had been 1-for-15 with nine strikeouts, and Tristan Peters is now in right field, with Brenton Doyle in center and Sam Antonacci in left. Venable framed the move as a reward for Doyle’s play rather than a punishment for Montgomery, and he noted that with all the substitutions in play, nobody is really sitting untouched.
There’s also the question of Andrew Benintendi batting fifth, especially after the looks he’s given Gavin Williams in this series.
Josh and I recorded our pregame show before the lineups dropped, so my wish for a buffer between Miguel Vargas and Munetaka Murakami didn’t happen. Even so, you can hear our early guesses, our picks to click, and our predictions for how the game would go.
Cleveland made its own outfield adjustment, with Stephen Vogt sitting Angel Martínez for Petey Halpin. Martínez is 0-for-15 in the series, and Anthony Kay’s hit-by-pitch to open that six-run sixth only made that decision look worse.
This is the 18th and final meeting between the White Sox and Guardians this season, and even with everything on the line, the managers are keeping the temperature low. Vogt described a hallway exchange after Game 4 and said the two have kept things respectful through the series.
We had a moment after Game 4 where we ran into each other in the hallway and kind of shared like, of course, we're going to play five games. So yeah, just catch eyes when he goes back and forth.
I just look at him like "what else is new," and he kind of does the same thing to me. I always enjoy little interactions like that even in game.
I have so much respect for Will.
The lineup cards are set, and the stakes couldn’t be cleaner. Sean Burke gets the ball, the White Sox are trying to keep their season alive, and the winner moves on.
In Other News...
White Sox Turn To Sean Burke With Season On The Line
Sean Burke will take the ball for the White Sox in Game 5 of the ALDS against the Guardians, a nod to the right-hander who emerged as Chicagos most steady starter over the course of the regular season. Manager Will Venable confirmed the move, and it gives the White Sox a more conventional look after the first four games of the series were handled with bullpen days.
It is also a defining turn in a series that has gone all the way to the wire, with the winner moving on to face Tampa Bay in the ALCS. Chicago has leaned hard on matchup-based pitching to this point, but now the season comes down to Burke in a true starters assignment, with the White Sox needing him to carry the kind of workload that has been in short supply so far in this matchup. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Could Revisit A Familiar October Pitching Market
The offseason pitching market already looks like a priority for St. Louis, and the Cardinals are expected to shop across the board for help both in the rotation and the bullpen. After leaning on a mix of playoff-tested arms, the front office is being nudged toward names with some familiarity attached, the sort of targets that can make sense if the market gets expensive and the need stays broad.
Among the possibilities being floated are a handful of pitchers with recent momentum and different ways to fit a staff. Brady Singer, Dylan Cease, Dustin May and Devin Williams all come up as plausible fits on paper, which speaks to the range of what the Cardinals may need. However they sort through that list, the next move figures to say plenty about how aggressively they plan to reshape October plans for next season. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Get One More Shot At A Guardians Gamble
One more win stands between the White Sox and a trip to the ALCS, and they will have to earn it on the road in Game 5 against Cleveland. Chicago is turning to right-hander Sean Burke, while the Guardians are handing the ball to right-hander Gavin Williams in a decisive game that grew out of a bullpen outing the night before, when he helped close out Game 4 and push the series to this point.
Williams has already been a problem for the White Sox in this matchup, and now he gets the rare task of coming back on short rest to start the biggest game of the season. For Chicago, the challenge is straightforward even if the path is not: solve a familiar arm, survive a hostile crowd and find a way to keep a season alive in a game where every pitch feels like it could swing the series. [Read more 🡒]