r/ClevelandGuardians

CLEVELAND — The loudest moment of Gavin Williams’ night happened over his head. 

They call it the bat swing or the swing room. It’s the small storage room under the dugout where Williams goes between innings of every start, whether it’s the middle of May or the middle of the fourth inning in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the American League Division Series. Williams sits in a blue plastic chair in the middle of the room while the Guardians are batting to slow his heart rate, alone with his thoughts and the hum of the building, as he focuses on the sound of his own breathing. 

There are Keurigs in there, a private restroom off the back, and some shelves that house athletic tape, water and Gatorade. It’s a nondescript space for a nondescript franchise that stays quiet all year until October. 

He was there, in that chair, when José Ramírez swung at a pitch not even nine inches off the ground, and the whole place came apart above him. Williams heard it the way you hear thunder from inside the house. Something huge, somewhere else, happening to other people.

Williams stuck his head out to see Ramírez circling the bases, then immediately retreated to his little blue chair. 

Gavin Williams and José Ramírez are two pillars of this organization that baseball has tried hard to extinguish over the years. The starting pitcher who can work deep into postseason games and the hometown slugger who refused to leave. Stars rarely stay with one organization these days, and never with the small-market club. Ramírez stayed. Took less to do it. In this era, that’s its own kind of complete game. 

Williams took the 2-0 lead Ramírez’s home run provided, and he handled much of the rest. The Guardians are moving on to the American League Championship Series against Tampa Bay because Williams finished off the Chicago White Sox in Game 4 by getting the final three outs, then returned in Game 5 with 5 2/3 absolutely dominant innings. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning on Saturday, and 12 of his 17 outs were strikeouts, tying the franchise record for most in a postseason game. He is the sixth pitcher in baseball history to pitch at least five innings, allow one or fewer hits, and strike out at least 11. 

Baseball has spent a decade eliminating the possibility of nights like this.

Nobody planned it. There was no secret meeting where an intern with an Ivy League degree proposed removing the romance from the sport. It happened the way most losses happen, slowly, one sensible decision at a time.

Advertisement

Somebody figured out that hitters do better the third time through a lineup. Then somebody else figured out that a fresh reliever throwing 99 in the sixth inning beats a tired starter throwing 96. Arms are expensive and fragile, and every pitch carries a level of risk. All of those statements are true, and they’re all reasonable arguments that led us here. 

Hello all,

While we celebrate the ALDS win, the mod team has noticed a portion of the community going into the White Sox subreddit to either troll, talk down to them, or argue. This is, at minimum, a serious lack of class, and quite frankly I'm disappointed in people. You're better than this.

Rule 2 in the community is to not go to other teams' subs and troll them or provide links.

Going forward, we will also be removing posts showcasing posts in other team's subreddits. This is a Guardians subreddit, not a "look at how mad/upset this subreddit is" subreddit.

Stay out of other teams subreddits. We've already caught wind of already plenty of people going over to their house and shitting in their living room, and people have caught bans because of it. Just because someone is shitting in OUR living room doesn't make it ok to do it back. It makes both places unpleasant and makes us look like sore winners.

If you see someone coming over to troll, please report the post, and it will be dealt with.

If you have questions, send us a modmail

On my way to Cleveland. Lets go Guards.

I’ve been to several postseason games and many regular season games. This was probably the best crowd I’ve been apart of. Even when shit was down, we mostly stayed in it, with minimal booing. I usually get fed up with low enthusiasm and negativity, but I think we finally did well.