CLEVELAND – Gavin Williams, at six-foot-six and 250 pounds, is a beast of a man who was a monster in the American League Division Series. In the span of six days against the Chicago White Sox, he started Game 2, closed out Game 4 and then returned to dominate Game 5, throwing 210 pitches over 11.2 innings while allowing only two runs and striking out 24, one short of Gerrit Cole’s 2019 DS record.
The benefit of earning a first-round bye meant Williams had nine days of rest heading into that series and that came in handy, Cleveland Guardians pitching coach Carl Willis said, because the team did “not know how much we were going to ask of him. As the old adage goes, everything happens for a reason. I think certainly it's a blessing in disguise. It didn't come about because of planning this, but I think (the rest) has helped him.”
All of which brought Williams back on normal rest for Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Thursday afternoon, and once again he shoved, averaging 97.6 m.p.h. with his fastball while getting nine whiffs on 21 swings against his sweeper. That produced five dominant innings of two-run ball with nine more strikeouts and, combined with Petey Halpin’s two-run homer in the fifth, led to a 3-2 victory that gave the Guardians a 2-1 lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the best-of-seven.
“Everybody here is just gritty,” said Williams. “They want the win. Everybody has a purpose … and knowing what you need to do in the right situations.”
Cleveland’s vaunted bullpen shone again with four shutout innings, capped by a four-out save from Cade Smith. The closer from Abbotsford, B.C., came on in the eighth with two outs and the tying run at third base and won a 10-pitch duel against Yandy Diaz with a 98 m.p.h. upper-rail fastball for a swinging strike three, and then went three-up, three-down in the ninth.
Game 4 is scheduled for Friday evening, although forecasted rain left “everything up in the air,” said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who was full of praise for his team and his closer.
“What an unbelievable at-bat and battle that was,” he said of the eighth. “That's what Cade does. He's efficient, and he's ready to take the ball.”
Whether he gets another chance to do it Friday as scheduled or not, the Rays plan to start Nick Martinez next, while the Guardians were still considering their options.
The potential of an extra rest day opened up possibilities for more creative pitcher usage, the type both teams have employed throughout October to this point.
Martinez, for example, pitched out of the bullpen during the division series and sat in the bullpen for Game 1 and was in the dugout with his cleats on, in case needed, for Game 2. “Whatever the team needs, I'm up for it,” he said. “That's been my MO since coming back from Japan, and my whole career, really. That's got to be the mentality for the rest of the year.”
Same with Game 3 starter Griffin Jax, who also pitched in relief against the Yankees the last round and bounced between roles all season. He gave up three runs in 4.2 innings Thursday, bled for one in the second when Jo Adell took a changeup for a called third strike, won an ABS challenge to reverse the call, worked a 3-2 walk that was upheld after catcher Liam Hicks challenged unsuccessfully, and then scored on a Nathaniel Lowe double lashed to right.
The Rays did their only damage against Williams in the fourth when, after going nine-up, nine-down the first time through, Diaz led off with a double. After back-to-back strikeouts of Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero, Victor Mesa Jr. walked before Chandler Simpson ripped a 2-1 sweeper into right-field corner for a two-run triple.
Only one Rays batter reached the rest of the way, and they finished with three hits and a walk.
“We’ve got to hit,” said manager Kevin Cash. “We went into the game, we knew we had our challenges. But look up, two runs on (three) hits, you’ve got to be perfect to win games like that.
“I'm not saying you can't, but ideally, we start getting some bigger at-bats going and piecing together a really talented offensive club all season long. Very confident that they'll bounce right back and be ready to go.”
Halpin, the 24-year-old rookie who posted a .594 OPS in 83 games this season, has been ready to go since being inserted as the starting centre-fielder for Game 5 against the White Sox. He doubled twice that night and Thursday; after a Patrick Bailey single, he caught a sinker and drove it out to right-centre, complete with a big bat-flip, for a 3-2 lead.
The bullpen did the rest, including a clean seventh from Edmonton lefty Erik Sabrowski and, of course, Smith’s shut-down work, beginning with the dramatic Diaz duel.
“Just putting up that kind of at-bat against Cade was impressive in itself,” said Halpin. “And just watching (Smith) ripping right on right splitters, it was like, this is competitive baseball, this is the best that it gets. It's fun to be a part of.”
That sentiment is universal, which is why players for both teams, but especially the pitchers, are willing to push themselves so far beyond the norms.
Williams embodied that in the division series, and the Guardians were cognizant of that Thursday, with Vogt lifting him after five innings despite only 70 pitches because his fastball velocity dipped to 95.3 from 98.2 the previous frame.
“When we go into the game, we have a limit that everybody has. He was a little lighter today just with what he did over the weekend,” explained Vogt. “But you also have to watch the game. They'll tell you when they're getting tired, or they'll tell you when things aren't starting to go well. For Gavin, the first four innings, he looked sharp, and he still looked sharp in the fifth. I just didn't like the velo drop. He's feeling fine. We’ve just got to get him out of there at the right time.”
Williams noticed the fifth-inning dip, “but I've done something that I never did last week, so I thank (Vogt and Willis), too. They noticed it a little bit. See what I've got in two days or five days. Whatever they need from me.”
Such are the demands of pitching in October and the price of post-season success.
