Tim Taylor didn’t need many pitches to slam the door Thursday night, and the White Sox hardly needed anything more from him.
After Jo Adell sent a first-pitch four-seamer screaming toward the left-center-field seats with Chase DeLauter on first and two outs in the eighth inning of Game 2 of the American League Division Series, Taylor had one simple thought.
“Stay in the ballpark, please,” said Taylor, smiling.
The ball kept carrying, but just enough. It wound up as a 413-foot triple instead of a game-tying homer, shaving the White Sox lead to 2-1. Taylor regrouped, then got Nathaniel Lowe on a line drive to left field that Sam Antonacci hauled in.
“Thankfully it stayed in. … They have a pretty tall wall over there. Just move on from it, next pitch and got an out.”
That was the end of the threat, and the end of Taylor’s night. He finished the last 1 1/3 innings on just seven pitches, all of them strikes, and the White Sox moved within one win of the AL Championship Series.
If they finish the job at home Wednesday, it would be the second time in franchise history they’ve clinched a playoff series in their own park - and the first since 1906, when they beat the Cubs in the sixth and deciding game to win the World Series.
Taylor has been right in the middle of this October run. He opened the postseason by throwing a career-high 54 pitches to close out the Astros in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series last Tuesday, then came back Saturday to strike out six over a four-inning save.
On Wednesday, he was told he might only need to cover one inning. That assignment stretched to 1 1/3, and he handled it without blinking.
“I’ve recovered well,” Taylor said. “Been very diligent about how I go about my business.
The team needs me to be able to pitch hopefully every day in the postseason. Hopefully I’m pitching for another 2 or 3 weeks.
I felt good today. Going to take it into Wednesday.”
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt saw the same thing from the other side. He liked the swings his club put on Taylor’s pitches, but the results never came.
“Anytime you have a closer that has good stuff, you are waiting for the first one to come to the plate, and bat a few balls off, and just missed a couple of them in the big part of the park,” Vogt said. “I thought our at-bats off Taylor were really good, just didn't get anything to fall.”
The White Sox had already gotten strong work before Taylor took over. Anthony Kay and Sean Newcomb combined to work the first 2 1/3 innings, giving up two runs, only one earned. Sean Burke then took the game deep, allowing one hit and one run over 5 1/3 innings while striking out six.
The lone run Burke allowed came on Adell’s triple, but Burke wasn’t about to pin anything on the bullpen’s finish.
“He's a dog, man. I'm out of words to describe him,” Burke said. “I was talking the other day, just me and him, when he had Tommy John, I had shoulder surgery, we were together, and I've kind of watched his growth from whenever he was 21, 22 years old to what he is now.
“Just to see the work he puts in and how serious he takes his craft, I got no words, man. You know, proud of what he does.”
From the White Sox bullpen, Adell’s drive was one of those plays where the last part of the ball flight disappears and everybody just listens. The crowd got louder, then louder again, and by the time Adell was racing to third, the Sox knew they were still alive.
And they knew exactly who they wanted finishing it.
“Thankfully we were able to get out of it,” Taylor said. “And go back out and get the job done.”
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