Gavin Williams had 12 of a record 21 strikeouts by Cleveland pitchers, José Ramírez hit a go-ahead home run on a pitch just above home plate and the Guardians beat the Chicago White Sox 2-0 Saturday night to complete a comeback from an 0-2 deficit in their best-of-five AL Division Series.
Cleveland opens the AL Championship Series at Tampa Bay on Monday night, seeking its first World Series trip since 2016.
The Guardians/Indians franchise hasn’t won the title since 1948, the longest drought among MLB teams.
Guardians pitchers set a record for strikeouts in a nine-inning postseason game and the most in any regular or postseason game since at least 1900.
The White Sox got just three hits, put only nine balls in play and finished the series with 75 strikeouts and a .185 batting average.
“It was less about chase and more about being attacked in the zone and swing and miss in the zone,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Just didn’t have what it would have took to move some balls forward there.”
Cleveland became just the 11th team to win a best-of-five series among the 96 that fell behind 0-2, the first since the 2017 Yankees against the Indians and only the fourth to achieve the feat after losing the first two games at home.
Two days after saving Game 4, Williams became just the third pitcher in postseason history to get the last out of a game and start the following game when his team faced elimination in both.
