Gavin Williams walked into Game 5 with every reason to feel the weight of the moment. He also walked in with a little extra help from Thursday night.
Those 18 pitches he threw in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the American League Division Series didn’t seem to take anything out of him. If anything, they sharpened him. On Saturday night at Progressive Field, Williams matched a postseason club record with 12 strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings, and the Guardians rode that performance to a 2-0 win over the White Sox and a trip to the American League Championship Series.
Cleveland will open the ALCS against the Rays in Game 1 on Monday night at Tropicana Field in the best-of-seven series.
The Guardians had to claw their way here the hard way. After dropping the first two games of the ALDS, they became just the 11th team to advance in a best-of-five postseason series after losing the first two. The last club to pull it off was the 2017 New York Yankees, who erased Cleveland’s 2-0 lead.
Williams was at the center of it all. He started Game 2 and punched out 11 in five innings, but Cleveland lost 4-3 and suddenly needed three straight elimination wins to survive. That stretch also pushed Williams into unfamiliar territory: he made his first relief appearance in the big leagues when he took over for closer Cade Smith in the ninth inning of Cleveland’s 9-5 win in Game 4.
Then came Saturday, and Williams was even better. Across two starts and one relief outing in the ALDS, he finished 1-0 with a 1.54 ERA, 24 strikeouts, five walks and two runs allowed in 11 2/3 innings.
The Guardians’ offense belonged to José Ramírez, which is no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention. His season looked stalled when he came back from surgery on his left hand on July 22, and he had trouble driving the ball and making hard contact. But in the ALDS, the switch-hitting Ramírez found his swing again.
He helped keep Cleveland alive in Games 3 and 4 in front of sellout crowds at Rate Field, then delivered the big blow at home on Saturday night to send the Guardians into the ALCS. The win leaves Cleveland four victories away from its first World Series since 2016.
Ramírez’s homer came after Sean Burke had looked every bit the problem Cleveland expected. Burke entered Game 5 with a strong track record against the Guardians, going 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA in four appearances against them this season, including a win in Game 2. He also opened the game by retiring nine straight.
But Steven Kwan singled to start the fourth, and that brought Ramírez to the plate. He had been 0 for 11 with five strikeouts against Burke, including two strikeouts in Game 2.
This time, he got a 2-2 pitch and sent it over the right-field wall for a 348-foot home run and a 2-0 lead. It was his second homer of the series, and he finished Games 3 and 4 with a 4-for-9 line and five RBI.
Jo Adell followed with a one-out infield single, but Burke escaped the inning without any further damage.
Williams did the rest with his arm and carried the 2-0 lead and a no-hitter into the sixth. He hit Colson Montgomery to open the inning, then struck out Brendan Doyle for his 12th strikeout of the night.
That tied the Cleveland postseason record, matching Charlie Nagy’s 12 strikeouts against the Orioles in Game 4 of the ALDS on Oct. 5, 1996.
Williams then got Sam Antonacci to fly out to right, but the no-hit bid ended on a broken-bat single to right by Kyle Teel. Miguel Vargas followed with a walk to load the bases, and Erik Sabrowski came on to face Chicago slugger Munetaka Murakami. Sabrowski, who entered with an 8.10 ALDS ERA, struck him out on a 2-2 fastball, and the crowd erupted as he left the mound flexing and screaming.
The game never really loosened up from there. Williams and Burke both controlled the early innings, and Williams had nine strikeouts through four. Tristan Peters, who walked with two outs in the second, was Chicago’s only baserunner at that point.
Cleveland’s best chance to get to Burke before the fourth came on Petey Halpin’s hard groundout to first with one out in the third. A light drizzle started in the third inning, but play continued.
Cade Smith handled the finish, working the final 1 2/3 innings for the save after throwing 48 pitches in Games 3 and 4.
The Guardians and White Sox saw plenty of each other this year. They were tied 9-9 across the regular season and postseason combined. Chicago won the regular season series 7-6, while Cleveland took the postseason matchup 3-2.
In Other News...
Guardians Face A Costly ALDS Dilemma Beyond Just The Rotation
The Guardians ALDS picture has plenty of moving parts, and the biggest ones are not limited to who starts which game. As the series has unfolded, the club has had to think through roster balance, how much pitching it wants to carry, and how the front office and players are viewing the broader landscape around MLBPA contract talks. It is the kind of October problem that goes beyond a single matchup and forces a team to weigh short-term survival against longer-term flexibility.
Gavin Williams added another layer to that conversation with a new role in Game 4, since his first big league relief outing also marked his first time pitching out of the bullpen since college. Cleveland is trying to manage the present while leaving enough options open for what comes next, including the possibility of deeper October decisions if the run continues. And with future labor questions looming in the background, the Guardians are dealing with more than just the usual postseason chess match. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Suddenly Look Dangerous Thanks To One Deadline Gamble
Clevelands offense has gone from quiet to relentless at exactly the right time, and the sudden surge has the Guardians sitting one win from the ALCS after taking Games 3 and 4 from the White Sox. Both of those victories came with nine runs on the board, a striking answer from a club that had been searching for the kind of timely thump that changes a postseason series in a hurry.
Jo Adell, brought in as a recent deadline addition, has been right in the middle of it, giving Cleveland a jolt that has changed the feel of the lineup over just two games. His arrival now looks like the kind of move that can reshape October, and the Guardians will carry that new edge into the next game with a chance to finish the job. [Read more 🡒]
Jose Ramirez May Have Just Saved Cleveland At The Perfect Time
Jose Ramirez has spent much of the season searching for the version of himself Cleveland has leaned on for years, and in Game 4 of the ALDS he finally gave the Guardians a reminder of why he matters so much in October. After working through pain since hamate bone surgery and enduring a difficult offensive stretch, Ramirez kept showing signs of life across the first two playoff games and then added another jolt in a 9-5 win over the White Sox.
The biggest swing came in the fifth inning, when his two-run homer flipped the game and helped Cleveland protect its season for at least one more night. With the series now headed to a decisive Game 5 at Progressive Field, the Guardians suddenly have reason to believe Ramirez may be heating up at exactly the right time, and that changes the feel of everything around them. [Read more 🡒]