During the Cleveland Guardians’ Game 2 loss at the hands of the Chicago White Sox on Monday, manager Stephen Vogt had to make some tough decisions, some of which had a direct impact on the result. One of them was managing Gavin Williams’ workload and knowing when to pull him out.
Williams entered the sixth inning with 91 pitches after allowing one run in the previous five frames, with 11 strikeouts. He had a one-run lead and had pitched a rock-solid game up until that point.
Vogt decided to leave him in to face Miguel Vargas, who singled on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. At that point, the manager took Williams out and called Erik Sabrowski.
Sabrowski and Gaddis combined to not just allow the inherited runner to score, but also surrendered two more runs as the White Sox flipped the score. Some people wondered what would have happened if Vogt had stuck with his starter, even though he was at 98 pitches after allowing Vargas’ single.
Vogt justified his decision after the game in an encounter with the media.
“If he has to face two more hitters, now you’re running him up to 110, 115 [pitches],” Vogt said. “It was the right time to get him out of there. He pitched his backside off. Just unfortunate we were not able to get the result.”
Sabrowski clearly didn’t have it, and the White Sox used several impact righties against him, too. In retrospect, perhaps relying on Williams would have been a better choice, but it’s easy to do this exercise after the events have already happened.
Williams has shown the ability to be a workhorse and is capable of surpassing 100 pitches if necessary. Perhaps he could have managed one or two additional batters, but again, it was a hard decision on the field, and going with his bullpen was not a crazy choice at that point.
The Guardians ended up losing. In fact, they have dropped both games in which their two aces, Parker Messick and Williams, took the ball. Now, they are on the brink of elimination, down 0-2 in the series, with the next two games in Chicago.
Should Vogt have stuck with his starter in that spot? We will never know for sure, and that’s the truth.
NEXT: Former Guardians Pitcher Has Passed Away
