CLEVELAND -- The raucous crowd at Progressive Field went silent as the deep drive off the bat of White Sox DH Tommy Pham kept carrying to left field. Game 1 of the ALDS was about to get out of hand.
A few seconds later, that silence turned into a full-on roar courtesy of Angel Martínez. The Guardians left fielder perfectly timed a leaping catch at the wall to prevent extra bases and potentially two runs. But that was only half of it. That roar grew even louder once Martínez fired a throw to Travis Bazzana, who easily doubled up Miguel Vargas at first base after he had already rounded second at the time of the catch.
The spectacular play kept Cleveland within two runs during an eventual 3-0 loss to Chicago.
Vargas had plenty of reason to believe Pham’s fly ball would drop. Struck at an exit velocity of 106.1 mph and traveling a Statcast-projected 366 feet, the drive carried an expected batting average of .860.
Instead, it was a critical 7-4-3 double play to end the top of the sixth. Martínez nearly provided another defensive gem one inning later by firing a strong throw home on a double down the left-field line by Colson Montgomery that beat Kyle Teel as he was trying to score from first, but catcher Austin Hedges was unable to hold onto the tag, extending Chicago’s lead to three runs.