CLEVELAND -- Whenever Gavin Williams takes the mound, the Guardians can typically rest assured that the big right-hander will pitch deep into a ballgame. Williams entered Friday ranked 12th in the Majors in innings pitched, with 101 2/3.
Of course, we know what they say about the best-laid plans.
“You can map out every game that you want to, and very rarely it goes the way you map it out ahead of time,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said with a chuckle.
We saw that play out on Friday, when the Guardians beat the White Sox, 4-3, at Progressive Field in what amounted to an unplanned bullpen game. Cleveland (47-42) now holds a one-game lead over Chicago (45-42) in the AL Central.
Williams tossed 4 2/3 innings before his night was cut short by a one-hour, 55-minute rain delay. Franco Aleman, Hunter Gaddis, Colin Holderman, Cade Smith and Erik Sabrowski pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of him, to set the table for Kahlil Watson’s walk-off single in the 10th.
It marked the second consecutive walk-off win for Cleveland after Brayan Rocchio hit a game-ending two-run homer in the opener of this four-game series on Thursday night.
“Gavin pitched yesterday,” Vogt quipped in his postgame media session, which landed after midnight ET on Saturday.
The Guardians entered Friday having played the most games decided by two or fewer runs among all MLB teams, with 52. They were 28-24 in those games. Since the start of June, 18 of Cleveland’s 27 games have been decided by two or fewer runs. The Guards are 8-10 in those contests.
The Guardians and White Sox have continued to play nailbiters. Each of their five head-to-head meetings has been decided by a single run, with Cleveland going 3-2.
The difference this series has been Cleveland’s bullpen, which has thrown 9 1/3 scoreless innings and allowed just two hits and one walk. Chicago’s relievers have allowed seven runs (six earned) on eight hits and seven walks.
“They've been doing it all year,” Kwan said of the Guardians’ relievers. “I think we sometimes take it for granted in how well they do, how prepared they are as well.”
Foreboding clouds rolled over Progressive Field while Williams was locked in a battle with Miguel Vargas in the fifth inning. The Guardians led, 1-0, but Chicago had two runners on with two outs.
Vargas fouled off four two-strike pitches from Williams to run the count full. Williams threw a sweeper up in the zone that Vargas hit over the left-field wall for a go-ahead three-run homer. The Guardians’ grounds crew immediately rolled the tarp on the field after the blast.
Williams started against the White Sox at Rate Field on June 22, so Vargas had a recent look at him. He exclusively threw his four-seamer and sweeper against Vargas, who hung in there long enough.
"He's a good hitter,” Williams said. “I think he's seen about everything I could throw at him, and he got the pitch he was looking for. I left it up a little bit in the zone, and wish I didn't do that."
The rain delay eliminated any chance of Williams pitching deep in the game. Aleman (whom the Guardians recalled from Columbus before Friday’s game) was first up in relief. He retired all four hitters he faced and struck out Andrew Benintendi.
Gaddis took over in the seventh and worked around a two-out single by Jacob Gonzalez in a scoreless frame. That set the table for the Guardians’ offense, which tied things at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning behind back-to-back RBI singles by Nos. 8 and 9 hitters Austin Hedges and Kwan off lefty Bryan Hudson.
Vogt turned to Holderman in the eighth; he struck out one batter in a 1-2-3 inning. Smith pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and then passed the baton to Sabrowski in the 10th. The lefty entered with pinch-runner Luisangel Acuña on second base as the automatic runner. Sabrowski had to pay as much attention to Acuña as the batters he faced. Acuña entered Friday ranked in the 98th percentile with 29.8 feet/second sprint speed.
Sabrowski struck out Tristan Peters and Gonzalez looking before he got Sam Antonacci to fly out to right fielder Chase DeLauter, paving the way for Watson’s heroics in the bottom half of the inning.
“It's always a lot better of a night when you get to walk in and talk about how good we did,” Sabrowski said, “rather than giving someone who had a tough night a pat on the back and a ‘Get them next time.’”