CLEVELAND, Ohio - The sound rolled through Progressive Field on a chilly October night and kept building: PETE-EEE. PETE-EEE.
This is playoff baseball in Cleveland, where 30,101 fans were packed in and living every pitch. And when Petey Halpin stepped in during the fifth inning with Patrick Bailey on first and Tampa Bay holding a 2-1 lead, the crowd got exactly the swing it was waiting for.
Griffin Jax fired a 96 mph fastball to the left-handed hitter, and Halpin launched it. The ball kept carrying, and before it landed in the right-field seats, Halpin had already paused, watched it for a beat, and flipped his bat straight up in the air.
He knew. Everybody knew.
It was a two-run homer, a 385-foot blast that turned the game and delivered Cleveland a 3-2 win over Tampa Bay. With that victory, the Guardians grabbed a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
The dugout reacted like the stands did. Steven Kwan burst out, jumping up and down as Halpin circled the bases and the PETE-EEE chants kept echoing.
For Halpin, the October numbers now look a lot different than the regular season did. He hit .225 with a .594 OPS and four home runs in 195 regular-season plate appearances.
In the playoffs, he’s 4-for-12 with a homer and two doubles. Playoff Petey has arrived.
Cleveland has a real chance to keep pushing toward the World Series for the first time in 10 years. Teams that win Game 3 to go up 2-1 in a best-of-seven series go on to win it 70% of the time.
Still, nobody around these fans is pretending anything is settled. They’ve seen too many broken baseball hearts and too many dreams that didn’t survive October.
The other reason this run keeps hanging together is the pitching, and it showed up again Thursday.
Gavin Williams, the 6-foot-6, 250-pound starter who looks every bit like the king of the hill, struck out nine over five innings while giving up two runs. After that, Cleveland handed the ball to a four-man relief line that never blinked.
Daniel Espino worked a 1-2-3 sixth. Erik Sabrowski followed with a 1-2-3 seventh.
Hunter Gaddis allowed one hit in 2/3 of an inning in the eighth. Then Cade Smith finished it off in his usual calm, ruthless way.
Smith struck out Yandy Diaz to end the eighth, then came back for a 1-2-3 ninth to lock down the save.
He’s been everywhere in this postseason. Smith has pitched in seven of Cleveland’s eight playoff games, covering nine innings with two hits allowed, one run, one walk and 13 strikeouts.
In Other News...
Guardians' Most Painful Trade Looks Even Worse After New Report
The 2021 swap that sent Junior Caminero from Cleveland to Tampa Bay has long lingered as one of the organizations toughest second guesses, and fresh reporting only adds another layer to the regret. The Guardians moved the then-rising prospect for pitcher Tobias Myers, a deal made with the hope of solving a pitching need while parting with a young hitter who was still far from the majors.
Now the sting is not just what Cleveland gave up, but how close the Rays came to asking for something else from the system before settling on Caminero. Xzavion Curry was among the minor leaguers Tampa Bay initially sought, and the fact that Caminero has developed into a top prospect while Myers and Curry have had quieter big league careers makes the trade look even harder to defend in hindsight. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Schedule Change Created An Unusual MLB Playoff Ripple
MLBs postseason calendar picked up an odd little domino effect Wednesday, with the league moving Game 4 of the NLCS between the Dodgers and Brewers up an hour to 8 p.m. ET. The change did not come out of nowhere. It followed the earlier decision to shift ALCS Game 3 between the Guardians and Rays from 6 p.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET because of expected inclement weather, a reminder of how one playoff adjustment can ripple across the rest of the bracket.
For Cleveland fans, the practical part is simple: the team confirmed that tickets and parking passes will still work for the new start time. The bigger picture is a postseason schedule that can still bend quickly around weather, TV and the rest of the leagues needs, even as the Guardians try to stay focused on the field rather than the clock. [Read more 🡒]
Gavin Williams Is Giving Guardians Fans Another Reason To Believe
Gavin Williams has already done his share to fuel Clevelands October run, and now he is looking to add something else to the mix as the Guardians head into the next round. The young starting pitcher said he wants to be a more vocal leader as the club prepares for Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, a sign of how quickly he has grown from power arm to one of the voices in the room.
Williams backed up that confidence with his latest outing, throwing 5.2 scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts in the series-clinching win over the Chicago White Sox. Cleveland now turns to a Game 3 matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays, set for 1 PM ET Thursday after a weather-related delay from the original 6 PM start, and the Guardians will be hoping their emerging starter brings the same edge both on the mound and in the clubhouse. [Read more 🡒]