Guardians 2, White Sox 0: 21 Strikeouts, Ramírez, and an ALCS Ticket

Twelve punchouts. Then the bases got full.

October 10, 2026 - Cleveland - Gavin Williams threw seven pitches in the first inning. He struck out the side in the second. He struck out the side in the fourth. Two days after he closed Game 4, he started Game 5 with a 94-pitch, 12-strikeout night, and the Cleveland Guardians still needed a foul tip with the bases loaded.

Erik Sabrowski got that one. Munetaka Murakami swung through a pitch that ticked the glove. Williams walked off with one hit, no runs, and a lead that José Ramírez had already put on the board.

The Guardians beat the Chicago White Sox 2-0 in American League Division Series Game 5 and won the series 3-2. They are the 11th club to drop the first two games of a best-of-five and then take the next three, the MLB recap said, and the first since the 2017 Yankees did it in this building. The AP recap said they are the fourth to do it after losing the first two at home.

Drizzle. 65 degrees. Wind 11 mph, out to center. First pitch 8:08 p.m. Attendance 36,889. The game lasted 2 hours, 36 minutes. Cleveland entered the night 2-9 in win-or-go-home games, the MLB recap said. It left as an ALCS club.

A knuckle-curve at the bottom of the zone

Sean Burke retired the first nine Guardians. Steven Kwan lined a single to right leading off the fourth. Ramírez did not wait long after that.

The fifth pitch of the at-bat was a 78 mph knuckle-curve. Ramírez lined it 348 feet down the right-field line. Kwan scored. 2-0. The AP recap said Statcast put the pitch 0.74 feet above the ground, the lowest postseason homer since tracking started in 2008, and the lowest Ramírez has hit out in 14 big-league seasons.

"In that AB, I was looking for a curveball for strike. So I was able to get my legs and get a good contact," Ramírez said through an interpreter, per the AP recap.

Stephen Vogt told MLB.com he was wishing it away from Tristan Peters until it snuck out. "To go down and get that, to be able to get through that, that takes some power, that takes some strength."

Ramírez had gone 0-for-6 in Games 1 and 2. He went 5-for-12 with a double, two homers, and seven RBI in the three wins, the MLB recap said. Game 5's homer was his second of the series. Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti told MLB.com he would not doubt Ramírez if there is one person on the planet he would not doubt. Vogt called it a Cooperstown at-bat. Sabrowski's version, also in the MLB recap, was shorter: "Build the [bleeping] statue."

Burke lasted five: four hits, two earned, no walks, four strikeouts, 71 pitches. The homer was the whole Cleveland offense. Jo Adell singled later in the fourth. Travis Bazzana struck out with him on. Petey Halpin doubled in the fifth and was thrown out at third, Peters to Chase Meidroth to Miguel Vargas. Cleveland went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, per the ESPN box. Two runs were enough.

Twenty-one strikeouts. One force at the plate.

Williams faced 21 batters. He hit Colson Montgomery to start the sixth. He struck out Brenton Doyle. Sam Antonacci flied to right. Then Kyle Teel lined the first White Sox hit, a single to right with two outs. Vargas walked. Bases loaded. Williams was done: 5 2/3, one hit, no earned runs, two walks, 12 strikeouts, 65 strikes.

The AP recap said the 12 tied Charles Nagy's club record for a postseason game, and that Williams had 24 strikeouts in three games this series, one shy of the mark for a best-of-five. ESPN's box listed 22 swinging strikes for him. Meidroth told the AP they got Williams out earlier than he wanted in Game 2, and that he got them tonight.

Sabrowski inherited three and struck out Murakami on a foul tip. Hunter Gaddis took the seventh and struck out Andrew Benintendi, Meidroth, and Montgomery around a Peters single. He struck out pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk to start the eighth. Antonacci singled. That was Gaddis: 1 1/3, two hits, four strikeouts, no walks.

Cade Smith finished it. He struck out Teel and popped Vargas up in foul ground. In the ninth he struck out Murakami, Benintendi, and Peters. The last pitch was a 99.2 mph fastball. Peters chased it. First career five-out save, the AP recap said. Smith and Gaddis both pitched in all five Division Series games.

Cleveland's staff struck out 21. The MLB recap called it the most in a nine-inning postseason or regular-season game in MLB history. Chicago put three hits in play as hits and, the AP recap said, only nine balls in play all night. Murakami and Benintendi each struck out four times. Teel and Meidroth each struck out three. Chicago went 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position and left six on.

The Guardians almost gave a run back in the eighth. Halpin doubled off Sean Newcomb. Grant Taylor inherited him, and Brayan Rocchio grounded Halpin to third. Kwan walked. Taylor intentionally walked Ramírez. Chase DeLauter bounced into a force at the plate, Meidroth to Teel. Adell grounded to third. The 2-0 held because Chicago's catcher tagged the runner, not because Cleveland added on.

Monday in Tampa. Four more.

Will Venable told the AP his club is sitting in disappointment. He also asked people to zoom out: Chicago reached October after three straight 100-loss seasons, swept Houston in the Wild Card Series, then lost four in a row. The White Sox have not won a World Series since 2005.

Vogt had the floor in a red-tinted Progressive Field clubhouse before the champagne, the MLB recap said. "Backs against the wall! Three straight elimination games! You boys showed up. You showed out. We've posted all year. No one counts us in. We've got eight more wins to go!"

Ramírez, through team interpreter Agustin Rivero, told MLB.com the mindset was clear after the first two losses. They knew they could come back in the next three if they played their game. Smith told the AP the last two years tested and refined the group's confidence. Antonetti called it resilience with their backs against the wall.

The ALCS opens Monday night at Tropicana Field. The AP recap noted Tampa Bay went 5-1 against Cleveland in the regular season, including three shutouts, and that the clubs have met in October twice before: the Rays in the 2013 Wild Card Game, the Guardians in a 2022 Wild Card sweep. Cleveland has not been to a World Series since 2016 and has not won one since 1948.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Cleveland at 7 team fantasy points on a 2-0. Williams had 26.66 pitching FP. Smith had 14. Gaddis had 10.33. Ramírez had 7 hitting FP. Chicago sat at -3. Burke's five innings still scored 7 pitching FP in a loss. Those numbers are the night: 21 strikeouts, one homer, and a staff that did not allow a run.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; MLB recap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; ESPN recap; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*