The Cleveland Guardians will be facing the Chicago White Sox in the best-of-five AL Division Series starting on Saturday. The matchup will settle once and for all who has had the best year so far amongst the two emerging AL Central powerhouses.
Cleveland, as we all know, will rely on its excellent one-two punch at the top of the rotation. By now, we already know that Parker Messick and Gavin Williams will start the first two games.
The White Sox represent more of an enigma pitching-wise. They don’t have the luxury of employing two aces at the top of their rotation, not yet, at least.
The Chicago White Sox have a solid offense that ranked fifth in MLB with 776 runs scored. If you told us before the season that you saw that coming, you would be lying. No one did, not even the most optimistic Pale Hose fan.
The rotation, however, was 26th out of 30 MLB teams with a mediocre 4.60 ERA. The team tried to improve its pitching outlook at the deadline, to no avail. However, the White Sox are a young, forward-thinking organization that has shown enough creativity to compete even with limited resources.
Their bullpen had the eighth-best ERA in baseball at 3.70. With 209 relief appearances of four outs or more, the White Sox set a single-season MLB record. So, we know that they aren’t afraid to use long relievers, openers, three-inning starters, and other modern concepts in order to maximize the talent available.
That’s what they plan on doing against the Guardians, for the first three games, at least.
“White Sox may use a bullpen game for Game 1, Game 2, and Game 3 of the ALDS. That doesn’t mean “starting pitchers” won’t throw multiple innings. It just means short leashes and plenty of matchup-based decisions for Will Venable. Unconventional. But could be effective,” team writer Sam Phalen said.
#WhiteSox may use a bullpen game for Game 1, Game 2, and Game 3 of the ALDS.
That doesn’t mean “starting pitchers” won’t throw multiple innings. It’s just means short leashes and plenty of matchup based decisions for Will Venable.
Unconventional. But could be effective.
— Sam Phalen (@Sam_Phalen) October 2, 2026
Chicago has already announced left-hander Hagen Smith as their Game 1 starter on Saturday. He will be on a relatively short leash, though, as he was on Tuesday in the Wild Card series opener against the Houston Astros.
That day, Smith tossed three scoreless innings and gave way to the bullpen after that. The very next day, Sean Burke pitched four innings in his start.
No, you shouldn’t expect to see any White Sox starter go beyond the fifth inning against Cleveland, not in the first three games, at least. Expect, however, to see plenty of Grant Taylor, Jordan Hicks, Sean Newcomb, David Sandlin, Anthony Kay, and Erick Fedde in long relief.
NEXT: Insider Reveals Why Guardians Can Win World Series
