The Cleveland Guardians are on their way to the ALCS after beating the Chicago White Sox, 2-0, in Game 5 of their ALDS series on Saturday night, completing the series comeback.
They will face the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS.
Cleveland won the last three games of the series and used a dominant pitching performance to do it.
Saturday was the most dominant of them all, and exposed a big problem the White Sox will have to address this offseason.
Guardians pitchers lead team to ALCS with Game 5 win
Led by ace Gavin Williams, Guardians pitchers not only shut down the White Sox bats in a win-or-go-home game; they allowed just three hits, walked only two, and struck out a whopping 21 hitters.
That 21-strikeout performance came just two games after Guardians pitchers struck out 19 batters in their Game 3 win to keep their season alive and extend the series.
Williams struck out 12 of the batters in his 5.2 innings, while the bullpen came out and added nine more over the final 3.1 innings.
Setup man Hunter Gaddis and closer Cade Smith each struck out four batters (for eight total) to close out the game. It says just as much about the White Sox hitters as it does the Guardians’ pitchers.
While the White Sox were one of the best home run-hitting teams in the Major Leagues all season, the trade-off for that was a shocking number of strikeouts. They were top-five in both categories, and it made them one of the more feast-or-famine teams in the league.
Over the course of a 162-game season, that can work. There is room for the occasional cold spell or strikeout-laden slump because you have so many other games to make it up. You’re winning on aggregate and not necessarily needing to win any one game.
But in the playoffs?
You do not get that luxury.
You do not get that margin for error.
The home runs are not always going to be there, and sometimes you need to find runs in other ways. You can not do that without putting the ball in play. The White Sox simply could not do it with any consistency.