They came back in the regular season to win the AL Central, and now they've come back in the postseason to win the ALDS. The Cleveland Guardians are ALCS-bound thanks to their Game 5 win over the Chicago White Sox at rainy Progressive Field on Saturday (CLE 2, CWS 0). The Guardians are the seventh team in the Wild Card era (since 1995) to come back from down 0-2 in a best-of-five series.
"Anytime you go down 0-2, you can sulk, you can pout," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said prior to Game 5. "And I feel the emotions. It's frustrating, obviously, but it doesn't do myself or anyone good to feel sorry for myself or feel bad for us.
We still have a chance." The Guardians dropped Games 1 and 2 at home before the offense woke up at Rate Field in Chicago. They scored nine runs in Game 3 and another nine runs in Game 4. In Game 5, the Guardians scored just enough to complete the series comeback.
They are the first team to erase an 0-2 Division Series deficit since the New York Yankees against Cleveland in the 2017 ALDS. Starters Sean Burke and Gavin Williams gave us a dandy of a pitching matchup in Game 5. Both teams were hitless through three innings ...
This is the fourth winner-take-all game in postseason history where neither team had a hit through 3 innings, joining: Three other ALDS G5s: 2020 TB NYY 2013 DET OAK 2012 NYY BAL ... and there were two hits total through four innings. The two teams that combined for 12 runs in Game 3 and 14 runs in Game 4 couldn't get into the hit column early in Game 5. The White Sox's best chance to get back into Game 5 came in the sixth inning, when they loaded the bases with two outs.
Lefty Erik Sabrowski struck out Munetaka Murakami to escape the jam. As late as Aug. 16, the White Sox had a 5 ½-game lead in the AL Central, and the Guardians were six games back. From that date forward, Cleveland went an AL-best 25-12, while the White Sox limped to 19-20.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
