The White Sox-Guardians ALDS is headed to a winner-take-all Game 5 on Saturday night in Cleveland, but one MLB insider is already looking past it.
Bob Nightengale pointed to the Tampa Bay Rays as the biggest beneficiaries of how this series has played out. Cleveland will host Chicago at Progressive Field after the White Sox took the first two games and the Guardians answered with two of their own to force the deciding matchup. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay finished off the New York Yankees with a sweep earlier in the week.
“The winner of the White Sox-Guardians deciding Game 5 tonight? The Tampa Bay Rays,” Nightengale wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“They are tanned, rested and relaxed, last playing on Wednesday. They have Drew Rasmussen, Freddy Peralta and Nick Martinez all lined up with home-field advantage beginning Monday with Game 1.”
The timing matters because the Rays have already been able to sit since Wednesday after eliminating the Yankees. That means they’ll go into the ALCS with extra rest while the White Sox-Guardians winner gets just one off-day before Monday’s opener.
There’s another way to view Tampa Bay’s position, though. The Rays also got a break in the AL Wild Card Series when they earned a bye, so they’ve played only three games since the regular season ended in late September. That kind of layoff can cut both ways: it leaves a team fresh, but it also means less recent game action.
Game 5 between the White Sox and Guardians is set for 8 PM ET on Saturday night.
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