Where does Chicago's pitching staff stand after 5 bullpen-heavy games?

CHICAGO -- After their unorthodox and reliever-heavy pitching plans worked through the first four games of their postseason run, things finally went a bit haywire for the White Sox in Game 3 of the American League Division Series on Wednesday.

In front of a raucous crowd eager to see the White Sox clinch a postseason series at home for the first time in 120 years, lefties Bryan Hudson and Hagen Smith scuffled in a four-run third inning and right-handers David Sandlin and Davis Martin later struggled in a 9-3 loss to the Guardians at Rate Field.

But the silver lining is the White Sox will now have all of their high-leverage bullpen arms available for Game 4, including highly talented closer Grant Taylor, who picked up a 12-out save in Game 1 and a four-out save in Game 2. Taylor will be available for a multi-inning role and could even go four innings again, if needed, because he hasn’t pitched since Monday.

“We'll evaluate where we are with the capacity for some of these guys,” manager Will Venable said. “[Noah] Schultz was part of the plan today and did a nice job in the middle to cover some ground. [It] puts us in a spot where we're able to collect ourselves and reevaluate where we're at.”

Flamethrower Jordan Hicks also is fresh and has thrown four scoreless innings this postseason, while veteran right-hander Erick Fedde could be used in a multi-inning role. Smith also should be available after having thrown 21 pitches, and Sean Newcomb could be as well after having thrown 22 pitches as Wednesday's opener. Lefty Anthony Kay, who opened Game 2, is also available, but he couldn’t get through the first inning on Monday.

The White Sox haven’t announced a starter for Game 4 just yet, but as it’s been throughout the postseason for them, they’ll mix and match to the best of their ability with all hands on-deck. And they’ll have a challenge with Cleveland countering with rookie sensation Parker Messick.

Their approach started out well with fellow lefty Newcomb throwing two scoreless innings to begin the game. The White Sox scored a run in the opening frame to get the crowd going. But Hudson had trouble from the jump in the third inning, walking Travis Bazzana on five pitches before surrendering back-to-back singles to Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan to tie the game at 1.

The White Sox then went to Smith, who had excelled in short starts against Houston in the AL Wild Card Series and in Game 1 in Cleveland. But the rookie walked José Ramírez to load the bases. With two outs, Smith gave up a game-changing three-run triple to Jo Adell on a 1-2 fastball above the zone.

“The plan going in was going from [Newcomb] to [Hudson], then [it was] using Hagen as a fireman to douse some things there,” Venable said. “The walks and some contact there just made it tough. And then that at-bat with Adell, get him two strikes and he does a nice job fighting off a fastball and hitting the ball fair.”

Another positive was Schultz, a former top prospect, pitching well in relief and giving the White Sox three much-needed innings. The 23-year-old lefty gave up one run on two hits and two walks with one strikeout. The lone run he gave up came in the fifth, when Ramírez did it all with a double, a stolen base of third and scoring on an RBI groundout from DeLauter.

“Felt good,” Schultz said. “I wish I had that [fifth] inning back, but can't change anything now. But I felt good at the end of the day.”

With the White Sox losing Game 3 and with no off-day on Thursday (unlike the first two games of the series), Venable decided to go with pitchers who haven’t seen much action in the postseason in the later innings.

Right-hander Tyler Davis threw a scoreless seventh in his postseason debut but Sandlin and Martin both were hit hard, as Sandlin gave up two runs in the eighth and Martin permitted two more in the ninth to put the game away. Martin hadn’t pitched this postseason while Sandlin hadn’t seen action since throwing 1 1/3 scoreless innings in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series on Sept. 29.

Venable pointed to walks as a major concern, as Chicago’s pitchers combined to walk 10 batters with five of them coming around to score.

“Just got to be able to execute a little bit better and we’ve been talking about this the whole series, we know these guys are going to make you pay for walks,” Venable said. “The first couple games they didn't, but today they did.”