Guardians 9, White Sox 5: Six in the Sixth Forced Game 5

Bailey off the bench. Then Rate Field went quiet.

October 8, 2026 - Chicago - Patrick Bailey was not in the lineup. Austin Hedges was catching Parker Messick. The Cleveland Guardians had one hit through four innings and trailed 2-0. Then Bailey pinch-hit to start the fifth and drove Erick Fedde's hanging sinker 376 feet down the right-field line, just inside the pole, the MLB recap said. 2-1. Three batters later, José Ramírez turned Jordan Hicks's 99.9 mph fastball into the Guardians' bullpen. 3-2.

The Guardians beat the Chicago White Sox 9-5 in American League Division Series Game 4 and tied the series 2-2. Game 5 is Saturday at Progressive Field. The AP recap on ESPN noted Cleveland is trying to become the first club to come back from 0-2 in a best-of-five since the 2017 Yankees did it against, well, Cleveland.

Clear. 65 degrees. Wind 3 mph, in from center. First pitch 7:08 p.m. Attendance 39,920. The game lasted 3 hours, 39 minutes. Chicago had two chances to close this series at home. Thursday was the second miss.

Two in the third. Then the homers.

Hagen Smith opened and walked three in two-thirds of an inning without allowing a hit. Fedde inherited the mess and got out of it. The White Sox scored first in the third. Chase Meidroth doubled. Walks loaded the bases. Munetaka Murakami walked, and Colson Montgomery scored. Sam Antonacci hit a sacrifice fly. 2-0.

Messick lasted 2 1/3: two hits, two earned, four walks, five strikeouts, 65 pitches. Shawn Armstrong cleaned up the third and threw 1 2/3 scoreless. Stephen Vogt told MLB.com it felt like a back-and-forth night once he pulled the rookie. It was.

Bailey's pinch-hit homer was the second Cleveland hit of the night and the fourth pinch-hit homer in franchise postseason history, the MLB recap said. Steven Kwan singled Fedde out of the game. Hicks threw 99.9. Ramírez did not miss it. The MLB recap called it the fastest pitch Ramírez has ever homered on, tied for the fastest a Cleveland player has hit out in the postseason under pitch tracking since 2008. It was his first postseason homer since 2024 and his fifth overall.

Bases loaded. Montgomery swinging. Then ten batters.

Chicago took the lead right back. Tanner Bibee walked two and was charged with two earned in a third of an inning. Tim Herrin hit Antonacci with the bases loaded. 3-3. Brenton Doyle hit a sacrifice fly. 4-3. The bases were still loaded with two outs. Erik Sabrowski struck out Braden Montgomery swinging. The AP recap said Antonacci has been plunked 33 times this year, including a franchise-record 29 in the regular season, and became the first player in postseason history to take a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch more than once in a career. Game 3 was the other one.

The sixth sent 10 Cleveland batters to the plate. Angel Martínez was hit by Anthony Kay and stole second. Travis Bazzana doubled just past a diving Montgomery in right, the MLB recap said. 4-4. Kay was done. Grant Taylor, who threw a four-inning save in Game 1, faced six batters and retired none of them. Bailey singled Bazzana home. 5-4. Brayan Rocchio walked. Kwan walked. Ramírez chopped an infield single. 6-4. Chase DeLauter singled. 7-4. Jo Adell lined to right and scored Kwan and Ramírez. 9-4.

The MLB recap tied those six runs for third most in a Cleveland postseason inning, behind two 2007 ALCS frames. After Wednesday's 9-3, it is the second time the franchise has scored nine in consecutive October games, following Games 3 and 4 of the 1997 World Series. Taylor's line was zero innings, four hits, four earned, two walks. Bryan Hudson and Tyler Davis finished the last 3 2/3 without another Cleveland run. The damage was already in.

Bazzana told MLB.com the crowd was great and that you have to slow your heart rate down. Ramírez put it shorter: "What this team is doing is only what we know how to do." Kwan said they let the home crowd down in the first two games in Cleveland. Saturday is another chance.

Williams in the ninth. Vargas still homered.

Hunter Gaddis threw 1 1/3 after Sabrowski's win. Cade Smith started the ninth. Miguel Vargas led off with his first postseason homer, 386 feet to left. 9-5. Vogt then called Gavin Williams for the first relief appearance of his career, the AP recap said. Williams got the last three outs. ESPN listed him as a possible Game 5 starter. The MLB recap said the same.

Vargas went 1-for-2 with the homer, three walks, two runs, an RBI, and a stolen base. He was the loudest Chicago bat on a night the club went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, per the ESPN box. Montgomery finished 0-for-5 with four strikeouts. Chicago left 12 on. The bullpen that carried a surprise season looked tired, the AP recap said. Two nights, two chances to clinch at Rate Field, two losses.

Cleveland went 5-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Bailey finished 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI after entering in the fifth. The MLB recap said he is just the fifth player with multiple RBI hits in a postseason game he did not start since RBI became official in 1920. Adell has four hits, three walks, and six RBI in the series after a two-run single capped the sixth.

Saturday in Cleveland. Series tied 2-2.

Game 5 is Saturday night at Progressive Field. Teams that drop the first two of a best-of-five and then win the next two have won Game 5 in 10 of 18 cases (56%) entering this round, the MLB recap said. Home clubs in winner-take-all games are 70-68 in postseason history, including 19-22 in the Division Series. ESPN noted teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five have gone on to win 83 of 93 times. Those two facts can sit next to each other. Saturday decides which one this series follows.

The winner plays the Rays in the ALCS. Chicago still has the same assignment it had on Wednesday: one more win. Cleveland has the assignment it wanted when it left Ohio down 0-2: one game, at home.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Cleveland at 16 team fantasy points on a 9-5. Vargas had 12 hitting FP in the loss. Ramírez had 10. Bailey had 9. Armstrong had 7.66 pitching FP. Sabrowski's win sat at 5. Taylor sat at -14. Those numbers are the night: a six-run inning, two homers off the bench and the three-hole, and a closer who did not record an out.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; MLB recap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; ESPN recap; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*