The Cleveland Guardians are right back where they usually are at this time of year, getting ready for Game 1 of a playoff series. Their opponent in the ALDS, the AL Central rival Chicago White Sox, just emerged from the Wild Card Round, which was their first postseason games since 2021.
That seeming edge in experience should benefit the Guardians, as well as the days off they earned as the division champion and No. 2 seed. The teams were nearly equal during the regular season, so every little advantage will help.
MLB.com analyst Mike Petriello revealed why the Guardians have the edge against the White Sox, identifying their starting pitching and the recent improved play of Jose Ramirez.
“The 85-win Guardians aren’t a dominant team, but they have a clear rotation edge and, crucially, may have actually gotten Jose Ramirez going over the last two weeks of the season. Did you realize they had the seventh-best slugging percentage in September? We didn’t, either,” Petriello said.
Those 85 wins allowed the Guardians to eke out the division over the White Sox by one game, with the race going down to the final weekend of the season. That could prove to be a huge difference, as it allowed Cleveland to set up its rotation for the best-of-5 series, with Parker Messick on the mound in Game 1 followed by Gavin Williams in Game 2.
Chicago, on the other hand, intends to use an opener for the first three games, at least. The White Sox rotation ranked near the bottom of the majors in ERA, but their bullpen set an MLB record for relief appearances of four outs or more, so they could make good use of this strategy.
That is likely to affect how Guardians manger Stepehn Vogt will manipulate his lineup. Fortunately, it looks like he will be able to use Ramirez with some confidence even though the All-Star third baseman had his worst offensive season in a decade.
In the final nine games, Ramirez was 12-for-38 (.316), although he had just one home run and four RBIs in that span. His power was lacking all year, an issue that was made more difficult by hamate bone surgery he had in June.
His teammates were able to pick up the slack, with a team slugging percentage of .430 in the final month, giving the Guardians some real momentum heading into this series.
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