CHICAGO -- When the Guardians arrived here this week, facing postseason elimination against the White Sox in the American League Division Series, they knew what awaited them at Rate Field.
Cleveland was up against a team whose fanbase had waited a half-decade to witness postseason baseball. The Guardians were entering what everyone expected to be a hostile environment. And they were looking forward to it.
“I always ask the players,” manager Stephen Vogt said this week. “‘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.”
The hushed silence that fell over Rate Field in the sixth inning on Thursday fell into the latter category. The Guardians beat the White Sox, 9-5, in Game 4 of the ALDS, riding a six-run sixth inning to force Game 5 on Saturday at Progressive Field.
Cleveland is one step away from an ALCS matchup with the Rays, after the odds to keep its season alive looked incredibly long just three days ago. It didn’t feel good through four innings on Thursday, when the club had just one hit and trailed, 2-0, and the Chicago crowd was starting to feel it.
These Guardians were down, but not out. Just as they found a way to track down the White Sox to clinch the AL Central title this season (and the Tigers in 2025), they have continued to respond this series.
“Obviously, we were disappointed with the 0-2 start, but we never count ourselves out to go and win a game and then win another one,” second baseman Travis Bazzana said. “We’ve been in plenty of situations where our backs are to the wall and we've got to find a way.”
“What this team is doing is only what we know how to do,” third baseman José Ramírez said.
The Guardians used potential Game 5 starter Gavin Williams to record the final three outs of the game after starter Parker Messick exited after 2 1/3 innings. Vogt said it felt like Cleveland was in for a back-and-forth game after he pulled the rookie lefty, and the middle innings brought it.
The Guards rallied for three runs in the fifth on homers from Patrick Bailey and Ramírez to take a 3-2 lead, but the White Sox regained a 4-3 lead in the bottom half of the inning. No problem: Cleveland sent 10 batters to the plate in the sixth.
Angel Martínez sparked the rally with a hit-by-pitch and a stolen base, and scored on a Bazzana RBI double just out of the reach of diving right fielder Braden Montgomery.
The lively crowd of 39,920 clad in black let out a collective groan when Bazzana’s double dropped in.
“They had a great crowd here,” Bazzana said. “You’ve just got to be able to slow the heart rate down and not do too much or do anything different when it comes down to that moment. You can kind of use that energy to focus, if you can slow it down.”
The next six batters reached against Grant Taylor, who, after recording a four-inning save in Game 1, did not get an out in Game 4 and was charged with four runs. Bailey singled, Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan walked, and Ramírez, Chase DeLauter and Jo Adell singled.
“Everybody just kind of stuck to their plans, did what they had to do,” Kwan said. “I think that's what the winning formula is if we're gonna win these games coming up.”
The six runs scored in the inning are tied for third most in a single inning in Cleveland franchise history, with Game 2 of the 1999 ALDS (third inning). It only trails the seven runs scored in Game 4 of the 2007 ALCS (fifth inning) and Game 2 of the same series (11th).
After the Guardians' 9-3 win in Game 3, this marks the second time in franchise history that Cleveland has scored nine runs in consecutive postseason games -- following Games 3 and 4 of the 1997 World Series.
Now, thanks to their offense coming alive after a poor showing in Games 1 and 2, the Guardians’ chances to advance to the ALCS amount to a coin flip.
Of the 18 previous teams to fall behind 2-0 in a best-of-five postseason series before rallying to win the next two games, 10 (56%) have proceeded to also win Game 5. In postseason history, teams playing winner-take-all games in their home ballpark have gone 70-68, including 19-22 in the Division Series.
The Guardians were on the brink after Game 2 in Cleveland on Monday. Now, they’re looking forward to a second chance to make the home crowd proud.
“We kind of let the home crowd down those first two games,” Kwan said. “So hopefully it's another chance at redemption.”