I can imagine some Guardians fans might have had a feeling of déjà vu Saturday night in Cleveland.
It’s the deciding game of a postseason series. The visiting team is from Chicago. And… it’s raining.
Well. It’s not the World Series and it’s not the Cubs in Cleveland, instead it’s an upstart White Sox team that had won the first two games of this Division Series at Progressive Field.
By the time the Guardians had dispatched the White Sox 2-0 in Game 5 and moved on to the ALCS, it was clear which was the better
team. I’ve thought for a number of recent years that the Guardians always seem to find a way. They did it last year when they overcame a 12.5 game deficit to the Tigers and won the AL Central, although Detroit got revenge by defeating the Guards in a Wild Card Series. This year Cleveland trailed the White Sox by 4.5 games on Aug. 30, then finished the season on a 17-9 run to take the division title — which ultimately might have been the difference in this series.
Cleveland’s offense was missing in the first two games, in which they scored a total of two runs. A lot of that was on third baseman José Ramírez, who went 0-for-6 over those games. Ramírez had a rough year after breaking a hamate bone in his wrist in June. He missed a month and had one of the worst years of his career. Hamate injuries are known for long recovery times and Ramírez might not be 100 percent until next year.
But after those first two games, Ramírez put the Guardians on his back, going 5-for-12 with a double, triple, home run and seven RBI over the three games Cleveland won. That included this impossible home run Saturday [VIDEO].
Look where that pitch was! How on Earth do you hit a home run off this pitch?
But he did. One more thing about that home run:
Guardians pitchers struck out 21 White Sox to preserve that two-run homer as the only runs Cleveland would need. The 21 K’s are a record for any MLB nine-inning game, regular season or postseason. (The previous postseason record of 19 in a nine-inning game had been set by the Sox… on Wednesday.) The White Sox struck out 75 times in the five games, a 40.5 percent K rate. That’s just not going to get it done.
Congratulations to the White Sox on their fine season, though it didn’t end the way they’d have wanted it to. To win 84 games and make the postseason after three straight 100+ loss seasons (and one of those a record-setting 121 defeats) is quite the accomplishment. They have some very good young players, particularly Miguel Vargas, Chase Meidroth and Colson Montgomery, and Munetaka Murakami brought intangibles along with a big bat from Japan. They’re fun to watch. They’ll also need to do something about that pitching staff if they want to move forward and improve on this next year.
Congratulations to the Guardians for winning this series, the 11th team to overcome a 2-0 deficit in a postseason series. That team is also fun to watch and, while it doesn’t have the talent level of the Rays, they also seem to have intangibles that help them win. Ramírez might be the most underappreciated superstar in baseball today. He’s eventually going to be elected to the Hall of Fame, and hardly anyone outside Cleveland even knows who he is. And if he continues hitting the way he did in the Guardians’ three wins over the White Sox, the Rays will have their hands full in the ALCS.
I’ll be rooting for the Guardians as long as they’re in it this October. Their championship drought stands at 77 years. Consider this: When the Cubs’ World Series drought was at 77 years, it was… 1985. The Cubs had to wait 31 more years! All of us as Cubs fans know how this feels. I’d like to see a World Series title go to Cleveland this year.
This postseason has already created some great stories and had some compelling games. Let’s hope that continues through the next two rounds. We’ll have a game thread here for tonight’s NLCS Game 1 between the Brewers and Dodgers, game time 7 p.m. CT, thread posting time 6 p.m. CT.
