The Cleveland Guardians came from behind multiple times on the road in Game 4 of the ALDS on Thursday night to take down the Chicago White Sox, 9-5. With the win, the Guardians, after losing the first two games of the series at home, forced a fifth and deciding game back in Cleveland on Saturday night. The winner will move on to face the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS.
The Guardians fell behind 2-0 early and 4-3 after five as the White Sox looked to clinch the series in front of their home crowd. But Cleveland responded in a big way, pushing six across in the sixth to flip that one-run deficit into a five-run advantage. It was too much to overcome for the White Sox, who haven't clinched a postseason series at home since the 1906 World Series.
The White Sox are also 5-0 in potential road clinchers (excluding 2020, which weren't true road games as there were no fans) -- perhaps a good sign for Game 5. As for Game 4, here's how things went down. The White Sox had a 2-0 lead heading to the fifth inning and it sure looked like it would be a low-scoring night -- a common theme in this postseason where, entering Thursday night, teams that scored four-plus runs were 17-0.
In the top of the fifth, though, Patrick Bailey hit a solo shot for the Guardians to cut the lead to 2-1. Then, José Ramírez crushed a two-run homer to greet White Sox reliever Jordan Hicks and flip the game to the Guardians' favor, 3-2. The White Sox responded with a rally of their own.
A leadoff walk and then a one-out walk set the table for Munetaka Murakami. He singled to left field to load the bases. Sam Antonacci was hit with a pitch to bring home one run and tie the game, 3-3.
Brenton Doyle then hit a sacrifice fly to give the White Sox a 4-3 lead. Next, Kyle Teel drew a walk to reload the bases, but Guardians reliever Erik Sabrowski entered the game and struck Braden Montgomery out to end the threat. It looked like a huge strikeout at the time.
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