Gavin Williams is down to one last shot at a big finish, and the numbers say he still has a real chance to walk away with the American League strikeout crown.
The Cleveland right-hander has piled up 244 strikeouts this season, which leads the AL and leaves him just three behind Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski, who owns the major league lead with 247. With five games left in the regular season, Williams is running out of time, but he’s also lined up for one more start before the year ends.
That outing could come at the perfect moment for Cleveland. Bleacher Report’s Adam Wells laid out why the Guardians’ schedule may help Williams in the chase.
“The strikeout race is arguably more compelling than the ERA title because Gavin Williams of the Cleveland Guardians will likely get the nod on Friday against the Kansas City Royals. Since the Guardians can’t wrap up the AL Central until Friday at the earliest, Williams will likely have a regular outing. Williams has 15 strikeouts in 11.2 innings against the Royals this season, but he hasn’t faced them since May 5,” Wells wrote.
Because Cleveland cannot clinch the AL Central until Friday at the earliest, there’s no obvious reason to treat Williams’ turn differently. That sets him up for what should be a normal workload against Kansas City, and that matters in a race this tight.
One good night could shrink the gap. A big one could put him on top.
The Royals matchup has already been friendly to Williams once this season. In his only appearance against them, he struck out 15 batters over 11.2 innings. The wrinkle is timing: he hasn’t seen Kansas City since May 5, so the look is old enough that there’s no clean way to predict exactly how Friday might unfold.
Even so, the chance itself says plenty about where Williams has landed by season’s end. He has become one of the key arms driving Cleveland’s push, and now he’s in position to chase one of the league’s biggest individual honors.
Williams isn’t the only Guardian sitting near the top of a major leaderboard. Cade Smith is tied for the American League lead in saves with 40, matching Tampa Bay’s Bryan Baker. It’s another sign of how much Cleveland has leaned on its pitching this year.
With Williams chasing strikeouts and Smith already locked into a share of the saves lead, the Guardians have built their identity around the kind of pitching that can carry a team deep into October. And with the division still being settled, Friday’s game could carry both team meaning and individual stakes at the same time. If Williams comes through, he could head into the postseason with a strong case as baseball’s most dominant strikeout pitcher this season.
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