CLEVELAND — The baseball world seemed to question the decision, or at least think it was a gamble.
Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt started Gavin Williams in Saturday night’s winner-take-all Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Chicago White Sox, choosing the big right-hander even though he'd just recorded the last three outs of Game 4 on Thursday night. It seemed dicey, to be charitable, to roll with Williams so soon, especially in this era of pitch counts, innings limits and workload management. However, Williams didn’t question his manager. In fact, the 27-year-old wanted the ball in Game 5.
Williams made Vogt look like a genius, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning and striking out 12 in 5.2 innings to lead the Guardians to a 2-0 win at Progressive Field.
The Guardians advance to the American League Championship Series to face the Tampa Bay Rays. Game 1 is Monday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
Dominant performance by Gavin Williams on short rest
Williams, who fanned an AL-high 248 batters in the regular season, tied the franchise postseason single-game strikeout record set by Charles Nagy in the 1996 ALDS against the Baltimore Orioles. Yet he didn’t even seem all that impressed.
“Just felt like any other start,” Williams said. “I felt like I do a good amount of recovery. I feel like all the pitchers will say the same thing. They can see me in the recovery room all the time. I feel like especially the starters give me a lot of crap about being in there so much.”
The only recovery more impressive in the series was the Guardians rallying to win three straight elimination games after losing Games 1 and 2 in Cleveland. They became just the fourth team to win a LDS after dropping the first two games at home.
Vogt also wasn't surprised by Williams’ performance on a quick turnaround. Five minutes after Williams closed out Game 4, he told Vogt he was ready for Game 5.
“I think that's just who he is,” Vogt said. “You just know that his mindset for the last 48 hours was I'm going to go out, and I'm going to win this game. And when you will yourself to do that and you work as hard as he does and you believe in yourself the way he does, you get a performance like that. I mean, that was unbelievable.”
Williams, Eric Sabrowsi, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith combined on a three-hit shutout. Even more impressive, they struck out 21 batters, an MLB record for a nine-inning game in either regular or postseason.
Williams’ no-hit bid ended in the sixth on a line drive single to right field by Kyle Teel. Miguel Vargas walked to load the bases, and the left-handed Sabrowski entered in relief and struck out slugger Munetaka Murakami to preserve the Guardians’ 2-0 lead.
Jose Ramirez drove in all the runs when he hit a line drive over the right-field fence in the fourth inning off a curveball from losing pitcher Sean Burke that was just nine inches off the ground.
Guardians bullpen dominates, too
Hunter Gaddis struck out four in 1.1 innings. Cade Smith also struck out four over 1.2 innings to get the save.
“Our pitchers are incredible,” Vogt said. “We asked a ton of them this whole series. When you miss bats, they can’t get anything going. And they just shut them down, and that’s a really good offense over there.”
Smith, like Williams, seemingly should have been running on fumes. He had thrown 50 pitches combined in the previous two games. However, the adrenaline generated by a postseason game offset any arm fatigue he may have felt.
“I think it's so much more fun to play in the atmosphere where it's sold out and where every pitch matters, and the fans know it and they're loud and involved,” said Smith, who led MLB with 41 regular-season saves. “This is what we work all year for, to have the opportunity to play on these stages and to play these meaningful games.”
The Guardians have more meaningful games ahead after Williams showed that rest is perhaps overrated.
“Those guys are really, really good,” White Sox manager Will Venable said of the Guardians’ pitching staff. “I think they made some nice adjustments, and obviously (Williams), whatever he did the day before or a couple of days ago, it didn't impact him. He was as crisp as we’d seen him. So, credit him for having his stuff and attacking us.”
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