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Twice the Guardians stood on the brink of elimination, and twice they refused to blink.
On the road, Cleveland responded in front of a loud, hostile crowd at Rate Field by remembering what it most excels at: Guardsball.
In a back-and-forth affair, the Guardians stayed gritty and passed the baton all night despite an unexpected short outing from their ace, needing a total of eight pitchers to force the American League Division Series back to Cleveland.
Now the series is tied at 2-2, and everything will come down to Game 5 on Saturday night at Progressive Field. The winner will play a well-rested and dominant Tampa Bay Rays team in the AL Championship Series. The loser will have a long winter ahead of them to ruminate over all that went wrong.
It might not be Game 7, but Saturday’s Game 5 will be, no doubt, just as nerve-wracking.
Here are my takeaways from Game 4:
1.
The White Sox were reeling from a painful fifth inning that saw the Guardians hit two home runs to take a lead, one from pinch-hitter Patrick Bailey and the other, a two-run shot, from de facto team captain José Ramírez.
Even though Chicago took the lead back in the bottom of the fifth, the Guardians’ offense was just getting started.
Cleveland saw three Chicago relievers in the massive top of the sixth inning, which changed the outlook of the game and kept its season from ending. A total lack of command, which plagued both teams on Thursday, sparked the Guardians’ comeback when left-hander Anthony Kay hit Angel Martinez with a pitch.
Smelling blood, Cleveland continued to tack on. Second baseman Travis Bazzana collected an RBI double to tie the game at 4-4.
Then, White Sox right-hander Grant Taylor jogged in from the bullpen to relieve Kay. But Taylor, in his fourth relief appearance of this postseason, struggled to record outs. He gave up an RBI single to Bailey, a walk to shortstop Brayan Rocchio and center fielder Steven Kwan, and a pair of singles to Ramírez and right fielder Chase DeLauter to give the Guardians a 7-4 lead.
With the bases loaded, Cleveland’s trade-deadline pickup and designated hitter Jo Adell put on the finishing touches with a bases-loaded, two-run single to right, ending Taylor’s night before he could record a single out.
By the time the inning was over, the Guardians had turned their 4-3 deficit into a 9-4 lead. It was exactly the type of steady, no-panic approach at the plate that Cleveland relied on all year to clinch the AL Central.
Passing the baton is how the Guardians reached this point. They will need more of that in Saturday’s Game 5 in order to advance to the ALCS.
2.
Guardians left-hander Parker Messick was the top rookie pitcher in baseball this year. But you wouldn’t know it from his erratic start against the White Sox on Thursday.
Messick lasted just 2 1/3 innings across 65 grueling pitches in Game 4 at a rocking Rate Field. He walked four of the 13 batters he faced, with his final free pass of the night coming with the bases loaded, which allowed the White Sox to get on the board and take the lead in the third inning. After giving up two earned runs in 4 ⅓ innings in Game 1 of the ALDS, Messick was on normal rest in Game 4, but he never looked as dangerous as he had been all year for the Guardians.
The 25-year-old southpaw had a cup of coffee in the majors last season, maintained his rookie eligibility, and followed it up with a 2.56 ERA in 186 innings and 32 starts this season. Messick established himself as a premier frontline starter and was one of the reasons this Guardians team entered October believing it has the talent to go all the way.
Messick was in the 81st percentile with his walk rate (6.6%) in his rookie season, ranking among the top 16 starters in the league at preventing free passes. He actually walked opposing batters less and less each month of the regular season, walking four hitters just once in a single game this year. So, it was highly unusual for Messick to lose his command the way he did in Game 4.
It’s fair to wonder how much the pressure, the crowd noise, his season-long workload, or all of the above played into his lopsided outing on Thursday. Backed into a corner, Messick simply was not the same pitcher the Guardians comfortably relied on all season, and that had an unfortunate ripple effect.
In total, the White Sox and Guardians combined for 15 walks on Thursday.
3.
White Sox relievers were taxed, and it showed. Chicago has used 14 pitchers over its last 18 innings, with no starter getting beyond the fourth inning in either of their last two games.
In Game 1, left-handed starter Hagen Smith lasted just 2 2/3 innings, though he kept a clean sheet. In Game 2, southpaw Anthony Kay recorded just one out as a starter before giving the ball to the bullpen. In Game 3, yet another left-handed starter, Sean Newcomb, pitched just two innings before the cavalry came out of the bullpen.
Finally, in Thursday’s Game 4, Smith recorded just two outs before he saw his manager, Will Venable, trotting out of the dugout to give the ball to the bullpen.
Using that many arms in a short series is typically not a recipe for success.
The Guardians have seen these same White Sox arms too many times in the same matchup to be pinned down from scoring runs. It’s one thing if all of those relievers came out of the bullpen firing away with sharp stuff. But their command was too much of a problem for Chicago’s strategy to work. Rest is too important for relievers, and the White Sox can’t find length from any of their starters. Friday’s off-day can’t come soon enough for the Sox.
3 ½. What’s Next?
Since Cleveland’s Game 2 starter, right-hander Gavin Williams, ended up throwing 18 pitches and securing the final out of Game 4 on Thursday, he’s unlikely to start Saturday’s pivotal Game 5.
Neither team has announced their Game 5 starters as of the final out on Thursday, but we can expect every single pitcher to be available in the winner-take-all finale in Cleveland on Saturday night.
