The Cleveland Guardians were supposed to win this series on pitching. Instead they opened it by getting shut out at home. The Chicago White Sox beat them 3-0 on Saturday at Progressive Field and lead the ALDS 1-0.
Munetaka Murakami did the damage early, driving a first-pitch elevated sinker 440 feet into the right-field seats for a two-run homer. It was his first postseason home run. Five Chicago pitchers then combined on a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts.
Cleveland had its chances and wasted them
This is the part that should bother the Guardians most. They loaded the bases with two outs in the third inning and did it again in the fourth, and they came away with nothing both times. They finished 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.
Hagen Smith, working for Chicago, had been hitless through 2 2/3 innings when he got into that traffic and escaped. Bryan Hudson got the win, and Grant Taylor pitched four innings for the save, striking out six and allowing two hits. That is a bullpen game that worked exactly as drawn up, and Cleveland never solved it.
Rookie left-hander Parker Messick took the loss. He gave up two runs on four hits in 4 1/3 innings, with six strikeouts and two walks. That is a respectable line for a postseason debut, and the Guardians did not give him anything behind it.
Adell and the lineup need to answer
Jo Adell, in his first postseason game, went 0 for 4 with four strikeouts. Catcher Austin Hedges did not dress it up afterward. “That stunk. We’re a better team than that,” he said.
Adell’s reaction was the right one. “Just act like it never happened and go out and compete,” he said. The problem is that a best-of-five series does not give you much room to act like anything never happened.
The Guardians get their best chance to reset in Game 2 on Monday at 5 p.m. ET. Gavin Williams, who is 14-8 with a 3.76 ERA and 248 strikeouts this season, takes the ball. MLB.com noted he averaged 14.5 strikeouts per nine innings after the All-Star break, which is exactly the kind of arm Cleveland needs right now.
Chicago keeps rolling with Kay
The White Sox counter with Anthony Kay, who went 10-9 with a 4.50 ERA and 129 strikeouts. On paper that is a mismatch, and Cleveland is a favorite on the betting lines for a reason. But Chicago has been the better team lately, going 8-2 over its last 10 games, and Murakami has been hot, hitting four home runs in his last 10 games.
Here is my read: Game 2 is a referendum on Cleveland’s offense, not its rotation. If the Guardians stack another night of bases-loaded failures, they will be staring at an 0-2 hole and a trip to Chicago. Williams can only keep the game close. Somebody in that lineup has to deliver the hit they missed Saturday.
No result for Game 2 was available at the time of writing, so everything here reflects the series after one game.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
