They came back in the regular season to win the AL Central, and now they've come back in the postseason to win the ALDS. The Cleveland Guardians are ALCS-bound thanks to their Game 5 win over the Chicago White Sox at rainy Progressive Field on Saturday (CLE 2, CWS 0). The Guardians are the seventh team in the Wild Card era (since 1995) to come back from down 0-2 in a best-of-five series.
"Very few people go wire to wire with phenomenal seasons," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said after Game 5. "You're going to go through ups and downs. You're going to have some times where you struggle as a starter. You're going to have some games where you just don't have it, but you learn from those and you understand, 'OK, what did I feel, what went wrong, how do I make sure that doesn't happen in a big moment?' And that's why you play 162 games. That's why you stick with guys. That's why you believe in guys and give them opportunities. And man, we had so many guys step up over the last five games. It's incredible."
The Guardians dropped Games 1 and 2 at home before the offense woke up at Rate Field in Chicago. They scored nine runs in Game 3 and another nine runs in Game 4. In Game 5, the Guardians scored just enough to complete the series comeback. They are the first team to erase an 0-2 Division Series deficit since the New York Yankees against Cleveland in the 2017 ALDS.
Starters Sean Burke and Gavin Williams gave us a dandy of a pitching matchup in Game 5. Both teams were hitless through three innings ...
... and there were two hits total through four innings. The two teams that combined for 12 runs in Game 3 and 14 runs in Game 4 couldn't get into the hit column early in Game 5. The White Sox's best chance to get back into Game 5 came in the sixth inning, when they loaded the bases with two outs. Lefty Erik Sabrowski struck out Munetaka Murakami to escape the jam.
As late as Aug. 16, the White Sox had a 5 ½-game lead in the AL Central, and the Guardians were six games back. From that date forward, Cleveland went an AL-best 25-12, while the White Sox limped to 19-20. The Guardians moved into first place for good on Sept. 16. It was the second straight year they rallied in the second half to steal away the division title.
The White Sox are now 0-2 all-time in winner-take-all postseason games, a shockingly low number of winner-take-all games for a franchise that has been around since 1901. Chicago's only winner-take-all postseason games are Game 3 of the 2020 Wild Card Series against the then-Oakland Athletics, and Game 5 on Saturday. The White Sox lost both.
Here now are three takeaways from Cleveland's historic Game 5 win over the White Sox.
2026 MLB playoff bracket: Schedule, scores as Guardians advance to ALCS with Game 5 win over White Sox
Kate Feldman
1. José Ramírez arrived just in time
It was a trying season for Guardians icon José Ramírez, who missed about six weeks with a hamate injury and had his worst offensive season (by a lot) since becoming a regular in 2016. He did finish the regular season strong, though, going 12 for 38 (.316) with three doubles and a home run in his last nine games, and Ramírez has carried that over into the ALDS.
The Guardians reached Game 5 thanks largely to Ramírez, who had multiple hits in Games 3 and 4 in Chicago, and hit for the cycle across the two games (double and triple in Game 3, single and homer in Game 4). In Game 5, Ramírez provided the game's only runs with a golf shot two-run homer in the fourth inning. How did he hit this pitch out?
That's a two-strike pitch, too. Burke threw the chase curveball he wanted to throw, but Ramírez went down and scooped it over the right field wall. Burke executed his pitch! That's just a great hitter doing something most hitters never could.
As Ramírez goes, so too do the Guardians. It sounds simple, and it is, but the simplest things are often the most true. Ramírez went 0 for 6 in Games 1 and 2, both losses for Cleveland. He then went 5 for 12 with four extra-base hits in Games 3-5, all wins for the Guardians. Your best players must be your best players in October, and Ramírez has rounded into form at the right time.
"We all love watching José play, and when he shows up like he has, it just makes all of us better," Vogt said about his franchise player after Game 5. "He raises the energy. He raises the -- just the belief, and I've been able to watch him for only three years. I know everybody in Cleveland has watched it for a long time, but that's what big-time players do. That's what Hall of Famers do."
2. Big Rig's big game
I'm not sure you could draw up a worse on-paper matchup for the White Sox. Chicago's offense had baseball's fifth-highest strikeout rate during the regular season, while Williams, aka Big Rig, led the American League in strikeouts and had the game's third-highest strikeout rate. This was the big question coming into the ALDS: Could the White Sox get the bat on the ball?
In Game 5, the answer was no. Williams struck out 12 batters in 5 ⅔ shutout innings, tying Charles Nagy's franchise postseason single-game strikeout record. At one point, Williams retired 10 straight batters, including seven via strikeout. The White Sox missed with 22 of their 50 swings against him for a preposterous 44% whiff rate. The MLB average was 25.1% this season.
Keep in mind that Williams closed out Game 4 on Thursday. It was only one inning and 18 pitches, which is tantamount to a between-starts bullpen session, but still, it's postseason intensity and Williams had never come out of the bullpen as a professional. If there was a carry-over effect into Game 5, it would have been understandable. Instead, Williams dominated.
"I'm just trying to do my job, give the team the best shot to win," Williams said after Game 5. "And I was honestly trying to save the pen a little bit. I know they've gone through it a little bit in the four first games, I guess. So that's the main thing, just giving the team the best shot to win."
It wasn't until Kyle Teel poked a two-out single in the sixth that Chicago got into the hit column against Williams. The White Sox struck out 21 times in Game 5 and 75 times -- 75! -- across the five-game series. That obliterates the Division Series record. Never before had a team struck out more than 64 times in the best-of-five Division Series.
3. Cleveland's pitching is a bit of a mess
The Guardians certainly won't go into the ALCS with a well-rested pitching staff. Such is life when you play the full five games in the ALDS. Parker Messick and Williams won't be able to start until Games 2 and 3, respectively. Game 1 could go to Foster Griffin, but he warmed up with intent in Game 5. Cleveland could be looking at a bullpen game in Game 1 of the ALCS.
The bullpen has been overworked, too. Closer Cade Smith threw two innings in Game 3, one inning in Game 4, and 1 ⅔ innings in Game 5. He will go into the ALCS having pitched in three of the previous five days. The same goes for setup man Hunter Gaddis. Pitching-wise, the Guardians will be behind the 8-ball to begin the ALCS. They worked their entire staff hard in the ALDS.
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