Cleveland has forced its American League Division Series with the White Sox back to the edge of the table, turning an 0-2 home deficit into a winner-take-all Game 5. For a franchise still chasing its first World Series title since 1948, there was never likely to be an easy route.
ALDS snapshot
| Series | Earlier position | Current position | Next game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guardians vs. White Sox | Cleveland trailed 0-2 | Series tied, 2-2 | Game 5, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET |
The Guardians recovered on the road in Chicago, in front of a White Sox crowd that had spent the day tailgating and arrived ready for October baseball. Cleveland now has a chance to become only the fourth club to win a Division Series after dropping the first two games at home.
José Ramírez has been at the center of the push. The 5-foot-8, 190-pound Cleveland star has played with the urgency expected from the face of a Rust Belt club trying to shake a burden that has followed generations of fans.
A club employee put the task plainly after Cleveland fell behind in the series: “If this drought is going to end, it will have to happen the difficult way.”
A championship wait that reaches back to 1948
Cleveland’s title drought has reached 78 years, the longest in Major League Baseball. The last championship came in 1948, and every promising October since has added another chapter to the wait.
The lean years gave way to a new era after the move into Jacobs Field in 1994. Cleveland had a young core, added established veterans and won 100 games in the strike-shortened 144-game schedule of 1995. That club reached the World Series, only to lose to the Braves.
The near-misses kept coming. Roberto Alomar’s extra-inning homer sent Baltimore past Cleveland in the 1996 Division Series. In 1997, Cleveland carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, yet did not finish the job.
The late-1990s teams remained loaded, but the October exits piled up:
- The Yankees eliminated Cleveland in the 1998 ALCS.
- Boston won the 1999 ALDS in five games, despite Cleveland scoring 1,009 runs that season.
- Cleveland missed the postseason with 90 victories in 2000.
- The 116-win Mariners took the 2001 ALDS in five games.
Since ending a 41-year postseason drought in 1995, Cleveland has not endured more than five consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance. That is a notable run for a small-market club that regularly operates near the bottom of the sport’s payroll scale, aided in part by its regular opportunities in the AL Central.
The leads that slipped away
Recent postseason history has supplied its own bruises. Cleveland lost a 3-1 series lead to Boston in the 2007 ALCS. It let another 3-1 advantage disappear against the Cubs in the 2016 World Series, then surrendered a 2-0 edge to the Yankees in the 2017 ALDS.
Last season brought another sharp turn. Cleveland erased a 15 1/2-game deficit against Detroit to capture the division, then lost to the Tigers in the deciding Game 3 of the Wild Card Series.
That is why this Game 5 carries more than the normal weight of a Division Series finale. The Guardians have already climbed out of one hole against the White Sox. If they survive Saturday, a matchup with a Rays club viewed as the stronger team in the ALCS would await.
For now, Cleveland has its chance at Progressive Field’s next big October night. The Guardians have made the series hard on themselves, but they have also made it possible again.
