White Sox push Williams to the limit, Guardians to the brink

Gavin Williams brought the heat. The White Sox eventually ran up the bill.

For five innings, the Cleveland righthander made Chicago’s lineup look mostly overmatched, piling up strikeouts while the South Siders strung together missed opportunities. But Williams’ pitches had an expiration date, and when he finally handed the ball over in the sixth, the Sox were ready to collect.

Braden Montgomery’s two-run double flipped the game, Chase Meidroth supplied a crucial insurance run and Sean Burke provided the record-breaking pitching performance Chicago desperately needed. The result was a 4-3 victory and a 2-0 lead in this best-of-five ALDS, with a chance to finish the job Wednesday in front of the home crowd.

Pack the bags. Bring the brooms. Maybe leave the opener strategy in Cleveland.

Williams came out firing fastballs at 100-plus mph, retiring Sam Antonacci on a grounder he nearly beat out before striking out Kyle Teel. Teel took a questionable strike two but wisely kept the challenge in his pocket. Miguel Vargas worked a four-pitch walk, only to be stranded when Munetaka Murakami went down looking. A 15-pitch first inning wasn’t going to get Williams out of this game. Chicago needed to make him work considerably harder.

First, though, the Sox had to survive their own pitching plan.

Anthony Kay opened and immediately started playing with matches. Steven Kwan singled past Meidroth, who appeared to have a chance at the grounder, and José Ramírez walked. Chase DeLauter’s ground out moved both runners into scoring position, and skipper Will Venable had already seen enough.

Enter Sean Newcomb —along with considerably more chaos.

After two balls to Jo Adell, the Sox finished the plate appearance with an intentional walk. Nathaniel Lowe followed with a high chopper that gave Newcomb a tough play, and his throw sailed past first, allowing two runs to score.

One hit. One ball out of the infield. Two Cleveland runs.

October baseball: occasionally beautiful, occasionally whatever that was.

Newcomb struck out Angel Martínez and Travis Bazzana and then retired Cleveland in order in the second. Meanwhile, Williams was carving up White Sox hitters like a Thanksgiving turkey, striking out the side in the second as Chicago chased just about everything on the menu.

Both teams also burned an early challenge, leaving each with only one for the later innings. Thankfully, it didn’t come back to bite.

Colson Montgomery managed a walk in the third, but Antonacci erased it with a double play. Newcomb struck out DeLauter in the bottom half before Venable turned to Burke, who struck out the next two hitters.

That pitching change would age considerably better than the first one.

The Good Guys finally broke through in the fourth. Kyle Teel ended the no-hit bid with a leadoff single, Vargas drew another walk and Mune turned an 0-2 count into a full count before slapping an RBI single to right.

That was the approach. Take pitches. Extend at-bats. Make Williams earn every out.

Unfortunately, the rest of the inning offered a different instructional video.

Andrew Benintendi struck out on three pitches, Tristan Peters flied out and Braden Montgomery struck out, leaving two runners stranded. Chicago wasted another leadoff single in the fifth when Meidroth reached and Colson, Antonacci and Teel followed with strikeouts.

Williams had 11 Ks. He also had 91 pitches. The latter number was about to matter much more.

Stephen Vogt sent Williams back out for the sixth, and Vargas greeted him with another full-count battle before singling to left. Finally, Cleveland’s starter was done.

The South Siders had spent much of the evening losing individual fight, but still managed to wear down the guy throwing the punches.

Southpaw Erik Sabrowski took over and got Murakami to ground out, moving Vargas to second. Pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk drew a four-pitch walk, and a wild pitch to fellow pinch hitter Tommy Pham advanced both runners.

Pham popped out to shallow left, putting Chicago one out away from wasting another golden opportunity.

The rookie jumped on the first pitch and drove an opposite-field double down the right-field line, bringing home Vargas and Grichuk for a 3-2 lead. Meidroth kept the line moving with an RBI single to right, then advanced to second on an errant throw to first.

Just like that, the Sox had four runs, and Cleveland had a problem.

Burke made sure it stayed that way. After working through a 19-pitch fourth, he retired the Guardians in order in the fifth, sixth and seventh. While Chicago’s offense went quiet again, the righthander kept putting zeroes on the board.

He retired a White Sox postseason-relief record 13 consecutive hitters before DeLauter’s two-out single in the eighth brought Venable back out for the hook.

Grant Taylor entered, and Adell promptly drove his first pitch to left-center for an RBI triple that came uncomfortably close to leaving the yard. Suddenly, that fourth run looked less like insurance and more like the entire policy.

Taylor got Lowe to fly out on his next pitch, preserving the 4-3 lead.

Cade Smith needed only five pitches to retire the Sox in the ninth. Taylor apparently liked that efficiency and matched it, setting Cleveland down in order on five pitches to finish the win.

It wasn’t tidy. It wasn’t comfortable. For long stretches, it wasn’t even particularly encouraging.

But the Sox made Williams throw enough pitches to open the door, Braden kicked it in and Burke gave them the innings to make it count.

Now the South Siders head back to Chicago one win from the ALCS.

Wednesday would be a lovely time to get it.

MVP
Sean Burke: 5 1/3: 1 H, 1 R, BB, 6 K, W

Runners-Up
Braden Montgomery: 1-for-4, R, 2 RBI, 2B, 2 K
Munetaka Murakami: 1-for-4, RBI, K
Chase Meidroth: 2-for-4, RBI, K
Grant Taylor: 1 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, S

Cold Cat
Anthony Kay: 1/3 IP, 1 H, 2 R (1 ER), BB

Runners-Up
Sean Newcomb: 2 IP, 1 H, BB, 3 K, E
Sam Antonacci: 0-for-4, K
Colson Montgomery: 0-for-3, BB