Williams fans 12 as Cleveland win decisive Game 5 Ramírez’s two-run homer provides only scoring Guardians to face Rays for place in World Series Gavin Williams struck out 12, José Ramírez homered on a pitch just above home plate and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Chicago White Sox 2-0 on Saturday night to complete a comeback from a 2-0…
Page S18From§Eachthe morning edition — 11 October 2026
Manager praised for basketball tactics watches his team swing and miss a series-record 21 times.
As it ran on the front
This reporter has called plenty of comebacks, and this reporter will say it plainly: the Guardians, down two games to none, closed out the White Sox on Saturday by setting a series record of twenty-three strikeouts in the deciding Game Five.
Gavin Williams, handed the clincher, struck out fourteen of those White Sox hitters himself, and this reporter will tell you Jose Ramirez answered with a towering two-run home run this reporter will not soon forget.…
Gushis side
This reporter has called plenty of comebacks, and this reporter will say it plainly: the Guardians, down two games to none, closed out the White Sox on Saturday by setting a series record of twenty-three strikeouts in the deciding Game Five.
Gavin Williams, handed the clincher, struck out fourteen of those White Sox hitters himself, and this reporter will tell you Jose Ramirez answered with a towering two-run home run this reporter will not soon forget.
That the White Sox stood in this series at all is its own story: two seasons removed from a 121-loss campaign, the worst stretch in the uniform's history, Chicago reached the ALDS under manager Will Venable, who built his bench strategy, The Guardian reported on October 7th, from basketball tactics.
Cleveland now turns to Tampa Bay, opening the Championship Series Monday night chasing a World Series trip this franchise hasn't taken since nineteen fifty-four, by this reporter's count the longest drought in the sport.
MLB, for 185 million dollars in 2022 rather than defend the pay stubs in court, and that same year the owners recognized a minor-league players union for the first time in the sport's history — if this network has a political desk, this reporter would like transferred to it immediately, because a man can retire twenty-one of the game's best hitters in one night and still have signed his first professional contract for less than minimum wage.
Trudyher side
Twenty-one, not twenty-three. Fox News and the New York Post both file the same number: a series-record 21 strikeouts.
Twelve, not fourteen — The Guardian's box score says twelve. And it wasn't towering; Fox News calls it, flatly, a historic low home run, a pitch just above the plate.
That part he's got right — 121 losses two years back, The Guardian's own profile of Venable, dated October 7th. Give credit where it's earned, even to Gus.
Nineteen forty-eight, not nineteen fifty-four — The Guardian's wire has it in the same paragraph as the final score: the longest title drought in Major League Baseball. Write it on your hand before the next deadline.
Lord, Gus, that mic is supposed to be off before the register ever opens — but he's right, and the receipts say so twice: Senne v. Major League Baseball Properties settled for 185 million dollars in 2022, the same year the owners sat down with the sport's first minor-league players' union. Go take your nap, sugar; you've earned it, and so, Lord knows, have they.
“Twenty-one strikeouts and a team that lost 121 games two years back, and few are talking about who actually threw those pitches as kids for less than minimum wage. The same league selling you this comeback story fought its own farmhands in court over paychecks and settled for 185 million dollars rather than open the books. The stakes here aren't the standings, they're whose paycheck the league keeps you from seeing.”
“Look, 121 losses was never about talent, it was a developmental investment, and Venable's basketball tricks prove ownership's patience is paying off — paying off by getting eliminated in a do-or-die Game Five against a historic strikeout total. Did I say paying off? That's not the line I was given.”
The receipts
Jose Ramirez's historic low home run and a record 21 strikeouts powered the Cleveland Guardians past the Chicago White Sox in ALDS Game 5.
Cleveland opens the AL Championship Series at Tampa Bay on Monday night, seeking its first World Series trip since 2016.
· Will Venable: the White Sox manager who used basketball tactics to transform a baseball loser from the morgue, 7 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.