A Walk in the Park: Patrick Bailey Homers Then Singles Home the Go-Ahead Run as Guardians Force ALDS Game 5
By Jess Henderson ·
Rate Field had waited all week for a clinch, which would have been the first time the White Sox clinched a postseason series at home since 1906, according to MLB.com, and 39,920 people showed up on a clear 65-degree Thursday night to see if Chicago could finish it. Cleveland, which had already survived one elimination game in this American League Division Series, scored three times in the fifth and six times in the sixth, beat the White Sox 9-5, and tied the series 2-2. Game 5 is Saturday at Progressive Field.
Stephen Vogt had framed the choice earlier in the week. "I always ask the players," he said, per MLB.com's Tim Stebbins. "'What do you like better? Do you like to make 50,000 people go crazy, or do you like to shut 50,000 people up?' They're both very different feelings, but they're equally as fun." By the middle of the sixth, Cleveland led 9-4.
Hagen Smith opened for Chicago for the second time in the series and could not finish the first inning. He walked Steven Kwan, got José Ramírez on a fly to center and Chase DeLauter on a force at second, then walked Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe to load the bases. Erick Fedde, working as the bulk arm after Smith, struck out Angel Martínez to end the threat and kept Cleveland off the board through four, with help from a double play in the fourth. Parker Messick, starting for Cleveland, lasted only 2 1/3 innings and 65 pitches. He struck out five and walked four, and the White Sox took a 2-0 lead in the third when Munetaka Murakami's walk scored Colson Montgomery and Sam Antonacci's sacrifice fly off Shawn Armstrong scored Chase Meidroth, who had doubled. Meidroth scored after Messick had already left; only Montgomery's run crossed while Messick was still on the mound.
Patrick Bailey did not start. Austin Hedges caught Messick, and Bailey pinch-hit for him leading off the fifth with Cleveland still down two. He worked a 3-1 count against Fedde and lined a 94.2 mph sinker into the right-field seats, 110 mph off the bat and 376 feet, which NBC Sports reported was the hardest-hit ball of Bailey's career. Bailey, typically in the game for his defense, didn't miss on the middle-middle sinker from Fedde.
After Bailey homered, Steven Kwan singled. Will Venable went to Jordan Hicks rather than let Fedde face Ramírez again, and Ramírez hit Hicks's second pitch, a 99.9 mph four-seamer, into the Guardians' bullpen in right-center for a two-run homer and a 3-2 lead. MLB.com noted it was the fastest pitch Ramírez has ever homered on, tied for the fastest a Cleveland player has hit out in the postseason under pitch tracking since 2008.
Chicago answered in the bottom of the fifth. Tanner Bibee walked Meidroth and Vargas around a Tristan Peters strikeout, Tim Herrin came in and gave up a Murakami single that loaded the bases, and Antonacci was hit by a pitch to tie it. Brenton Doyle's sacrifice fly put the White Sox back in front, 4-3. Both runners Bibee left on base scored after he left; Herrin was charged with none of them and took a blown save. Kyle Teel walked to load the bases again, and Erik Sabrowski entered with two outs and struck out Braden Montgomery to leave them there. It kept Chicago's lead at one run, and Cleveland scored six times in the next half-inning.
Anthony Kay hit Martínez with a sweeper with one out in the sixth, and Martínez stole second. Travis Bazzana's sinking ball to right eluded a diving Braden Montgomery, per the Sun-Times, for a double that scored Martínez and tied the game. Venable called on Grant Taylor, who had thrown four scoreless innings in Game 1 and 1 1/3 scoreless innings in Game 2. Bailey, still in the game behind the plate, singled through the left side on an 83.8 mph curveball to score Bazzana and put Cleveland ahead 5-4. Taylor then walked Brayan Rocchio and Kwan to load the bases. Ramírez singled on a grounder to Chase Meidroth at second to score Bailey, DeLauter singled in Rocchio, and Adell singled in Kwan and Ramírez. Taylor faced six hitters and retired none, the Sun-Times wrote, and Bryan Hudson finally got the last out of the inning after Cleveland had scored six times. Kay was charged with two runs, though only Martínez scored while he was on the mound; Bazzana scored on Bailey's single after Taylor had entered. Bailey finished 2-for-3 with a homer, a go-ahead single, two runs and two RBIs. Sarah Langs of MLB.com noted he was the fifth player since RBI became official in 1920 with multiple RBI hits in a postseason game he did not start.
I like nights that sit around 60 degrees, and 65 with almost no wind is close enough that I kept thinking about a jacket I did not quite need. Baseball leaves space for noticing even small things, even while a lead changes twice in two innings. Martínez's steal before Bazzana's double was a small decision that turned into the tying run, and Bailey's at-bats were the larger ones: a pinch-hit swing that got Cleveland on the board, then a single that put them ahead for good.
Cleveland's bullpen held the lead from there, with more traffic than in Game 3. Sabrowski, who got the win, recorded two outs in the sixth after his fifth-inning strikeout, and Hunter Gaddis got the third and pitched the seventh. Cade Smith took the eighth, and Miguel Vargas led off the ninth with a home run off Smith that made it 9-5. Smith walked Murakami, and Gavin Williams came out of the bullpen. Williams, a candidate to start Game 5, threw 18 pitches, struck out Andrew Benintendi and got Braden Montgomery to line out to Kwan in left for the final out. Ramírez finished 2-for-5 with three RBIs, one day after the double, steal, stop and triple that carried Game 3. The two home runs were Cleveland's first of this postseason, according to CBS Sports.
The White Sox left 12 runners on base and did little after the sixth until Vargas's ninth-inning swing. Fedde had kept Cleveland scoreless into the fifth, but Taylor, the reliever Venable chose for the biggest spot of the night, faced six Guardians in the sixth and retired none of them.
Up Next
Game 5 is Saturday at 7 p.m. Central at Progressive Field. Sean Burke is positioned to handle the bulk of the outs for Chicago after working 5 1/3 innings in Game 2, according to CBS Sports and the Sun-Times, and Cleveland's plans are muddier after Williams's 18-pitch appearance Thursday. The winner faces the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS.
Of the 18 previous teams to fall behind 2-0 in a best-of-five postseason series and then win the next two games, 10 went on to win Game 5 and the series, according to MLB.com. Home teams in winner-take-all games are 70-68 all-time and 19-22 in the Division Series.