Steven Kwan isn’t reaching for alarm bells, even with the Cleveland Guardians staring at a 0-2 hole against the Chicago White Sox in the ALDS.
That calm comes with plenty of baggage. Cleveland has had to dig out of trouble before in the regular season, including this year’s six-game deficit to win the AL Central and last season’s historic 15.5-game climb to the same finish.
But the postseason has been a different story. The Guardians have dropped 13 of their last 14 games when facing elimination, a run that includes last year’s loss to the Detroit Tigers in the AL Wild Card Round.
Still, Kwan said the group isn’t pressing the panic button.
“We’ve had a ton of adversity throughout this year. We had a ton of adversity last year as well, so I think it’s just there’s no panic button.
We’re not trying to do too much. We just have to do it with a ton of focus, and we’re just gonna have a good day tomorrow,” Kwan said.
Cleveland’s path back starts with Game 3 on Wednesday, and the Guardians can at least point to one recent October comeback. In 2024, they were down to the Tigers in the ALDS before ripping off two straight wins to take the series, capped by a 7-3 victory in Game 5. That snapped an MLB-record 11-game losing streak in elimination games that stretched from Game 7 of the 2016 World Series against the Chicago Cubs through Game 5 of the 2022 ALDS against the New York Yankees.
The odds still lean heavily against them. Teams that lose the first two games of a best-of-5 series have been eliminated 89 percent of the time, with 83 of 93 failing to recover. The last club to erase that kind of deficit was the Yankees, who won three straight in the 2017 ALDS.
There’s another layer here for Cleveland, too. The Guardians also lost the 2024 ALCS to the Yankees in Game 5 before being knocked out by the Tigers last year after finishing ahead of them in the division. This season brings a similar setup, with Cleveland finishing one game ahead of the White Sox in the AL Central.
Chicago, meanwhile, carries a strange bit of history into the series as well. The White Sox have not clinched a playoff series at home in 120 years, since beating the Chicago Cubs to win the 1906 World Series.
In Other News...
Guardians Loss Put Cleveland's Next Roster Decisions Front And Center
The Guardians season hung in the balance in Game 3 of the American League Division Series against the White Sox, and with that urgency came an offseason conversation that was already starting to take shape. Cleveland has a cluster of free agents to sort through, including Austin Hedges, Rhys Hoskins, Nathaniel Lowe, Shawn Armstrong and Foster Griffin, all of whom have factors that will matter as the front office looks ahead to roster construction and the margins that can swing a year.
If the series reaches Game 4, Parker Messick is expected to get the ball, adding another layer to a team already navigating the pressure of October. Messick and manager Stephen Vogt both addressed the challenge of handling the environment around a game like this, a reminder that Clevelands present and future are suddenly colliding at the same time. [Read more 🡒]
Steven Kwan Sends A Clear Message As Guardians Face Elimination
The Guardians have been here before, staring at another elimination game with their season hanging by a thread. Cleveland has stumbled badly in these spots over the years, losing 13 of its last 14 postseason elimination games, but Steven Kwan said there is no panic in the clubhouse as the team prepares for Game 3 of the ALDS against the Chicago White Sox.
Cleveland has already shown this October that it can shake off a bad start, rallying from a 2-0 deficit in the 2024 ALDS to extend its run. The challenge now is even more immediate after dropping the first two games of this series, but Kwans message was clear: the Guardians are not treating the moment like a lost cause. [Read more 🡒]
Vogt's Gavin Williams Decision Just Put More Pressure On Cleveland
Stephen Vogts choice to lift Gavin Williams in the sixth inning of Game 2 against the White Sox was made with caution in mind, as the Guardians manager said he wanted to avoid overextending the right-hander after 91 pitches. Williams had been working through a tough spot when he was removed following a single, and Cleveland was counting on the bullpen to keep the game manageable.
Instead, the relief group gave up more runs, and the loss left Cleveland in a deeper hole in the series. Now down 0-2 with the next games in Chicago, the Guardians face a tougher road than they wanted, and the decision to protect Williams only adds to the scrutiny as the pressure builds. [Read more 🡒]