CLEVELAND — Stephen Vogt and his Cleveland Guardians are used to this situation by now: needing two wins on the road to keep alive their season.
Cleveland faces a 3-2 deficit in the best-of-seven AL Championship Series and not a lot of time to rebound after Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. There is no travel day because of a rainout, and Game 6 is Monday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
“Let’s go. We don’t have another choice,” Vogt said. “This is when this team thrives.”
Cleveland rallied in September for the second straight season to win the AL Central. The Guardians were 60-65 and 5 1/2 games behind the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central on Aug. 17 before winning eight of nine and then going 16-9 in September to win the division by one game.
The Guardians dropped the first two AL Division Series games at home to the White Sox before winning the next two in Chicago and closing with a 2-0 win at Progressive Field in Game 5.
“I think it’ll help a ton knowing that we’re able to do it, facing elimination,” said Steven Kwan, who had two of Cleveland’s five hits and his first career postseason outfield assist. “I think we feel a little better on this one as opposed to the other ones since we’ve got some wins under our belt. Just have to trust our plans, turn the page and see what happens tomorrow.”
Kwan, who has 51 career outfield assists in the regular season, threw out Taylor Walls trying to score from second base on Jonathan Aranda’s fourth-inning single to left and made a leaping catch at the center-field wall on Victor Mesa Jr.’s eighth-inning drive, saving a run.
Teams trailing 3-2 after five games in the ALCS have come back to win only seven of 23 times. The last two teams in that position accomplished the feat, Texas in 2023 and Toronto last year.
Cleveland is 47-38 on the road in this year, including the postseason, and 43-44 at Progressive Field.
The biggest question is which pitcher will start Monday. Foster Griffin began Game 1 but was the bulk reliever for Game 4 on Saturday, working 3 2/3 innings and allowing one run and four hits.
Vogt ruled out right-hander Gavin Williams, who led the AL with 248 strikeouts in the regular season. Williams started Game 3 on Thursday and allowed two runs in five innings.
Cleveland’s bullpen allowed only one run in seven innings after Parker Messick struggled. A candidate for AL Rookie of the Year, Messick had the shortest outing of his big league career and didn’t make it past the third inning for the second time in four postseason starts.
The 25-year-old left-hander allowed two runs, five hits and three walks over two innings, throwing just 34 of 57 pitches for strikes.
Messick has pitched exactly 200 innings on the year, the first rookie to reach that mark in a season since Kansas City’s Yordano Ventura at 208 1/3 innings in 2014. The prior Cleveland rookie to toss at least 200 innings was Charles Nagy with 211 1/3 innings in 1991.
“I feel great right now,” Messick said. “Body feels good, arm feels good. I’m still throwing hard. I don’t really have any body fatigue. It’s just whether or not I’m executing the game plan.”
