Gavin Williams, José Ramírez Power Guardians to ALCS
Pope Leo XIV may not have quite as much pull with The Man Upstairs as Chicago fans had hoped. After obliterating the Astros in the Wild Card Series and jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the ALDS, the White Sox dropped three in a row to end their miracle 2026 season. On the back of a brilliant performance from starter Gavin Williams, the Guardians defeated the White Sox, 2-0, in Game 5. They’ll now head to St. Petersburg to face the Rays on Monday night, making their second ALCS appearance in three years.
So many things about this series were odd. Both managers pulled every lever they could get their hands on. The first four games featured 49 pitchers and just 54 hits. Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt continued the trend in Game 5. He shook up his lineup, sitting catcher Austin Hedges in favor of Patrick Bailey, who homered in Game 4. Angel Martínez, who went 0-for-15 in the first four games of the series, got benched in favor of Petey Halpin, who ran a 66 wRC+ in the regular season. But after all the mixing and matching and overthinking, the rubber match was a genuine, old-fashioned pitcher’s duel. If you’re a fan of gaudy strikeout totals and teardrop curveballs pouring into the strike zone, this was the game for you.
The game also looked like it might be impacted by weather. Rain started falling before first pitch, with the intensity picking up in the bottom of the second. By the third, the television broadcast was cutting to Guardians fans wearing ponchos and the cleat cleaner was getting significant air time. The grounds crew replaced the cleat cleaner after the third, and just like that, the rain calmed down. By the fifth, it had all but stopped.
Davy Andrews is a Brooklyn-based musician and a writer at FanGraphs. He can be found on Bluesky @davyandrewsdavy.bsky.social.
pope leo xiv and mike vasil vs what i can only assume is guardians jobu magic
Good players do good things; news at 11!
Not analytical but hey that’s what the best players do.
Now if one of these wal-mart level spenders can finally take down the Neiman Marcus Dodgers, I’d be pleased.
Surely, SURELY, this is the year?
Guardians pitchers got 75 Ks in 5 games. Average of 15 Ks per game. 55.6% of the outs came via a K.
That’s pretty mind-blowing.
Yep, shows the Sox offensive approach was all wrong for the series. It was all dingers or bust, and they busted.
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=al&qual=0&type=8&season=2026&month=0&season1=2026&ind=0&team=0%2Cts&rost=&age=&filter=&players=0&sortcol=5&sortdir=default
More about risky than wrong… like playing the stock market. Do it for a long time you get returns, do it for a week and who the hell knows?
Yup, but the difference between regular-season runs scored and getting shut out in the postseason is about more than just sample size. This year’s playoffs have so far been a very strong argument for the “put the ball in play” thesis — facing a different caliber of pitching, the K-heavy hitters and teams once again mostly haven’t kept pace.
Too many strikeouts. Record-setting strikeouts. The Sox offensive strategy against Cleveland was wrong for games 3-5, and they never adjusted from their “all or nothing” approach. I think they were 3-26 RISP for the series. That’s on Venable and the staff.
They were actually 6-31 with RISP. Still bad. Guardians were 10-37.
Venable doesn’t hit for his players.
It’s not strategy, it’s what the players are: boom or bust types who hit homers or strike out. You’re basically saying “go against what made you successful in the first place.” Yeah, totally Venable’s fault (makes wanking motion).
I am surprised that the fact that the White Sox struck out 21 times is not mentioned in a more significant way but merely just as a side note. Organized baseball has been played since 1876 and this is the first 9 inning game in which a team has fanned 21 times. Coming on top of the 19 strikeouts in Game 3 it puts the spotlight on the growing imbalance between pitching and hitting. Much has been said about Jacob Misiorowski, Paul Skenes and Payton Tolle but Gavin Williams showed the world last night that he is a member of that group and there are more and more of these 6’6″ pitchers coming along to only increase that imbalance. It wasn’t long ago that hits exceeded strikeouts regularly, in this series the teams hit a collective .199 and there were 112 K’s and just 57 hits. I hope baseball opens its eyes and sees this trend as something that needs to be addressed with more than token changes.
To be fair, and I say this as a fan, the White Sox are also inordinate whiffers.
I love the quote from Sabrowski about Murakami:
“I think I threw the plan out the window and said f— it,” Sabrowski said. “I’m going to throw you fastballs.”
How can you not be romantic about baseball?
Successful postseason hitters tend to wear down starters by not striking out even if they’re not great hitters overall like the 2014-15 Royals.
White Sox were 4-3 in this postseason so they weren’t hapless. Of course the competition was mediocre.