CHICAGO — Slowed by a wrist injury for most of the stretch run, Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez slumped to start the playoffs, too.
On Wednesday, Ramirez regrouped to have a huge hand in what Cleveland hopes is the catalyst for an American League Division Series turnaround.
Ramirez collected his first two hits of the series against the Chicago White Sox and contributed a key defensive play as Cleveland earned a 9-3 victory. The Guardians avoided elimination and trimmed Chicago’s lead in the best-of-five series to 2-1.
“Josey, that’s why he’s one of the best players in the league,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “He can hurt you with the bat, the legs, and the glove. He showed all that today.”
Game 4 is Thursday in Chicago.
Guardians pitching complemented Ramirez’s heroics, collecting 19 strikeouts to set a single-game major league record for a nine-inning postseason game.
Foster Griffin (1-0) helped Cleveland flip the script on Chicago’s early postseason mastery of bullpen games. The left-hander recorded seven of his eight outs via strikeout while allowing one run and two hits in 2 2/3 innings.
With Cleveland securing the AL’s No. 2 seed and a wild-card bye, Griffin pitched for the first time since Sept. 23.
“I just feel like my execution was really good today,” Griffin said. “I don’t feel like I left a lot of balls in the middle. I was pounding the zone a lot, getting ahead two strikes and putting them on the defense.”
He wasn’t the only one.
Guardians closer Cade Smith had five strikeouts while covering the last two innings after Tim Herrin fanned the side in a perfect seventh. Chicago’s Munetaka Murakami, Tristan Peters and Colson Montgomery each had three strikeouts while four other White Sox whiffed twice.
Chicago missed an opportunity to clinch a postseason series at home for the first time since the 1906 World Series. The White Sox went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
“Oh, I think we are going to bounce back,” White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas said. “That’s what we do. We know how to move to the next one.”
Vargas and Ramirez were key components during a critical sequence in the bottom of the sixth.
With the bases loaded and a run in, Vargas smashed a two-out liner to third on a 3-2 pitch. Ramirez dove to his left to knock the ball down and got to his feet to throw Vargas out, preserving a 5-3 lead.
“Didn’t trickle far enough for us to be able to get Vargy safe at first base,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “But, yeah, you know, kind of had them on the ropes there. It was a really big opportunity, nice swing by Vargy, and a great play by Ramirez.”
Jo Adell had a bases-clearing triple among his two hits for Cleveland while Patrick Bailey and Brayan Rocchio also had two-hit games. Cleveland finished with 11 hits to eclipse the seven total hits the Guardians collected in the first two games of the series.
A two-run Ramirez triple in the eighth put the game away before a raucous crowd of 40,590, most hoping to see the resurgent White Sox advance to the American League Championship Series after three successive 100-loss seasons.
Playing at Rate Field for the first time since the regular-season finale on Sept. 27, the White Sox scored a first-inning run on catcher Kyle Teel’s RBI double.
Teel’s hit against Guardians opener Daniel Espino also sent Vargas to third base. Espino then struck out Chase Meidroth before yielding to Griffin, who caught Peters looking to end the inning.
Chicago reliever Bryan Hudson (1-1) allowed three runs on two hits and one walk while lasting just one-third of an inning. White Sox pitching issued 10 walks in the game.
–Kevin Druley, Field Level Media
