Two years ago, the White Sox set a modern-day record with 121 losses. Last year, they suffered through a third straight 100-loss season. Now, they’re one win away from advancing to the American League Championship Series for the first time since winning the World Series in 2005.
Here are my takeaways from Chicago’s 4-3 Game 2 ALDS win over the Guardians: After dropping the first game of the series with their Rookie of the Year and Cy Young contender on the mound, the Guardians took solace in knowing that Gavin Williams would follow Parker Messick in Game 2. Williams, who led the American League in strikeouts this year, did his job. The burly right-hander struck out 11, tied for the second-most ever for a Guardians pitcher in a playoff game behind only Charles Nagy’s 12 strikeouts in the 1996 ALDS, and then watched his lead immediately disappear from the dugout on Monday night.
After a leadoff single by White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas to start the sixth inning, Williams — who threw 99 pitches or more 10 times this season — was pulled at 98 pitches. "We couldn't have asked anything more from Gavin tonight," said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. "He did his job and then some." After his departure, Chicago’s hitters seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
A Cleveland bullpen that ranked third in the American League in ERA and first in MLB in strikeout rate this season was unable to build a bridge to star closer Cade Smith. Erik Sabrowski, who allowed an RBI double to Colson Montgomery in Cleveland’s Game 1 loss, entered the game and got a groundout before walking a batter, throwing a wild pitch, getting a flyout and then surrendering a go-ahead, two-run, two-out double to rookie Braden Montgomery. Vogt then turned to reliever Hunter Gaddis, who promptly surrendered an RBI single to Chase Meidroth for an extra — and, ultimately, vital — White Sox insurance run.
Cleveland seemed to hold the obvious bullpen advantage entering the series, but it hasn’t played out that way. The ball chopped in front of home plate and hovered in the air for what had to feel like hours to White Sox pitcher Sean Newcomb, who corralled the first-inning grounder from Nathaniel Lowe behind the pitcher’s mound, turned, then pulled his throw so far down the line that first baseman Munetaka Murakami couldn’t even muster an effort to stretch for it. This was "Guards Ball" in action, an encapsulation of a Cleveland team that has won three straight division titles despite an offense that routinely ranks among the league’s least powerful.
But it’s a dangerous way to live in October, and a Cleveland offense that has mustered just three runs and seven hits through two games could again be its undoing. Game 2 began with White Sox starter Anthony Kay allowing two of the first three Guardians batters to reach, first on a seeing-eye single from Steven Kwan and then on a free pass. Newcomb entered and failed to extinguish the threat.
He got behind on Jo Adell, eventually intentionally walking the Guardians outfielder to load the bases, before inducing the grounder he was seeking from Lowe. But his errant throw sailed into right field and allowed two runs to score and gave life to a meager Cleveland offense that was held scoreless in Game 1 and a Guardians home crowd that, to that point in the series, had little reason to get involved. Sean Burke, the bulk pitcher in yet another White Sox bullpen game, would restore order.
Burke allowed just one run over 5.1 innings, at one point retiring 13 straight, buying time for the White Sox offense to dig its way out of an early hole. Then Grant Taylor, two days after throwing 42 pitches in a career-high four shutout innings to finish off the Guardians in Game 1, returned for more. Taylor allowed an RBI triple to Jo Adell in the eighth inning then shut the door on the Guardians, recording the final four outs to send the series back to Chicago with his team up 2-0.
In Game 1 of the ALDS, Murakami had the two hardest-hit balls of the day. The first was a single. The second was a two-run, 440-foot tank to start the scoring off Messick, who had allowed just three home runs over the final eight starts of his sensational season.
In Game 2, Murakami picked up where he left off, starting the scoring again for the White Sox. This time, he turned on a 99.5-mph fastball from Williams, lacing it 106.4 mph off the bat to right field for an RBI single that cut the deficit in half. Murakami has now knocked in at least one run in three of his first four playoff games, an auspicious sign for a White Sox team that needs him to be a difference maker.
But the 26-year-old former NPB standout is far from the only young White Sox hitter contributing to Chicago’s stellar start to the postseason. Meidroth, 25, is hitting .400 with five RBI through four playoff games. Colson Montgomery, 24, has homered and doubled.
Rookie Braden Montgomery, 23, delivered the big knock on Monday, and 26-year-old All-Star Miguel Vargas has already reached base six times in the ALDS. This is obviously a nightmare scenario for the Guardians, not only because they dropped both games at home but also because they couldn’t secure a win with either of their two best starters. Now, they’ll have to turn to Tanner Bibee, deadline addition Foster Griffin — who had a 3.06 ERA with the Nationals and a 5.19 ERA in nine starts with the Guardians — or a combination of bullpen arms to save their season.
If they can’t find a way to generate some offense, though, it won’t matter who’s throwing. "Backs against the wall, this is where this team thrives," Vogt said. "You don't want to be in this position.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it. We've backed ourselves into a corner. We know that.
If there's anything I know about this group of guys, it’s that we love challenges like this. We are going to embrace it."
