José Ramirez, Gavin Williams Stepped Up When the Guardians Needed Them Most

Cleveland got off to a rocky start to the ALDS, dropping back-to-back games at home against the rival White Sox. Throughout league history, when a team drops the first two games of a division series, especially when those games were played at their home stadium, very few have been able to claw their way back and win the series.

In fact, entering play on Saturday, only eight teams in the history of MLB’s division series had ever come back to overturn a 2–0 deficit. Under the current 2–2–1 format, in which the higher-seeded team plays at home in Games 1, 2 and 5, only two other teams have ever completed such a comeback––the 2015 Blue Jays and the ‘01 Yankees.

The Guardians became the third on Saturday in a 2–0 win over the White Sox, thanks in large part to heroic performances from starting pitcher Gavin Williams and the face of the franchise in José Ramirez. Williams, pitching for the third time in the five-game series, was untouchable on the mound. Even after pitching the ninth inning of Game 4, a big storyline coming into Game 5, Williams didn’t miss a beat. He struck out 12 across 5 2/3 innings, and didn’t surrender a single hit until the sixth inning. His 12 strikeouts were the most by any pitcher in Guardians postseason history, and his 24 strikeouts throughout the series are second-most by any player in a single division series in league history, trailing only Gerrit Cole. Additionally, it was the second-most strikeouts in a winner-takes-all game in postseason history.

Williams had never pitched out of the bullpen in his career, and after striking out 11 batters in five innings in Game 2, he let Stephen Vogt know he was prepared to come in if the team needed him during Game 4. He got the call in the ninth inning on Thursday and pitched a clean frame to shut the door on the White Sox. Then, two days later, he was back on the mound for Game 5, and he gave it everything he had.

After Williams exited midway through the sixth inning, Erik Sabrowski took to the mound in a crucial spot––bases loaded, two outs and Munetaka Murakami at the plate. Will Venable opted against taking out one of his best bats in Murakami to get a more favorable matchup (Murakami had a .725 OPS against lefties in the regular season), and Sabrowski sat him down on strikes to escape the jam.

Still, the offense, which hasn’t been very consistent this season, needed to do its part. And who else but Ramirez to deliver the game-changing hit with a single swing of his bat. In the fourth inning, Ramirez swung at a pitch near his ankles and golfed it into the seats in right field, breaking the deadlock and making it a 2–0 ball game. The pitch was 0.74 feet off the ground, making it not only the lowest pitch Ramirez has ever homered off, but also the lowest pitch to ever be hit for a home run in the postseason since tracking began in 2008, per Sarah Langs of MLB.com.

JOSÉ RAMÍREZ!

GUARDIANS TAKE THE FIRST LEAD OF GAME 5! pic.twitter.com/Z0zoqm513R
— MLB (@MLB) October 11, 2026

It was a rough regular season for Ramirez, who battled a hamate injury and never quite looked like his usual self. He hit just .235 on the year, his lowest in a season since 2015, and had 12 home runs, his fewest since ‘16. But he was healthy for the postseason run, and when his team had its back against the wall, he delivered in three straight games. In Game 3, he collected a pair of extra-base hits and drove in two runs. In Game 4, he had another multi-hit game, including a two-run home run. And he hit another two-run shot in Game 5, giving Cleveland some much-needed early momentum.

In the series, Ramirez went 5-for-18 with four extra-base hits including two home runs, seven RBIs and four walks. That’s the exact kind of performance the Guardians needed from him, and he got the job done in order to help them stave off elimination and keep their season-long fight going. He’s been the face of the franchise for most of the past decade, and his performance in the second half of the ALDS was a stark reminder as to why that’s been the case.

Winner-take-all games have not been kind to the Guardians, historically. Out of 11 tries in such scenarios, Cleveland has secured the win just twice. In fact, of the eight teams (now nine) to ever erase a 2–0 deficit in a division series, Cleveland was on the losing end of two of those series. Thanks to the efforts of Williams and Ramirez, they’ve completed the improbable comeback and will return to the ALCS for the second time in three seasons.

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