CHICAGO — Patrick Bailey started Game 4 of the American League Division Series on the bench, but he finished it as the difference. The Cleveland catcher entered as a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning and delivered twice to fuel the Guardians' 9-5 comeback win over the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field on Thursday, a victory that kept Cleveland's season alive and forced a decisive Game 5 on Saturday at Progressive Field.
Bailey silenced the crowd of 39,920 with his first swing, clobbering a hanging sinker a Statcast-projected 376 feet down the right-field line just inside the foul pole. It was just Cleveland's second hit of the night and cut the deficit to 2-1. "A pitch to drive. I was able to get in a hitter's count, took advantage of a good pitch to hit, and obviously it got the boys rolling a little bit," Bailey said after hitting just the fourth pinch-hit homer in Cleveland postseason history. Cleveland took the lead three batters later on José Ramírez's two-run homer before Chicago answered back in the bottom of the frame.
Bailey flipped the game again in the sixth. After Travis Bazzana tied the score with an RBI double, Chicago turned to Grant Taylor with one out. The right-hander had pitched 7 2/3 innings this postseason with just an unearned run allowed and 11 strikeouts. Bailey wasted no time, smacking a go-ahead RBI single to the opposite field to give the Guardians a lead they would never relinquish. Six straight Cleveland hitters reached base in the inning, and when it ended Cleveland led 9-4. "I just can't applaud our guys enough for the at-bats there. Obviously, we've seen Taylor. We know how good he is," manager Stephen Vogt said. "All of our guys laid off the tough pitches, got some good pitches, didn't try to do too much, took what they were given."
Despite not entering until the fifth, Bailey finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs. He is just the fifth player with multiple RBI hits in a postseason game he did not start since RBIs became an official stat in 1920, joining Raul Ibanez (2012), Brian Hunter (1991), Rob Wilfong (1986) and Dusty Rhodes (1954). The performance followed a two-hit, one-walk night in Wednesday's 9-3 win in Game 3. Cleveland acquired Bailey in May in part for his clutch history — four career walk-off homers, including a walk-off grand slam and an inside-the-park homer — and a swing adjustment in July helped him hit eight of his 10 homers this season in his final 54 games. "He always [brings] that extra energy," Ramírez said through team interpreter Agustin Rivero. "Things started happening once he was in the game."
Bailey was not in the lineup because Austin Hedges almost always catches for Parker Messick, who went just 2 1/3 innings Thursday. Bailey is expected to be in the lineup for Saturday's win-or-go-home contest, with Gavin Williams — who closed out Thursday's game — an option to take the hill. Cleveland is just the fifth team in MLB history to score nine-plus runs in consecutive postseason games when facing elimination, a surge that followed Jose Ramirez's go-ahead homer in Game 4 and the six-run sixth that forced Game 5. "The discussion [before the game] was if we lose, we're gone. Might as well go out there and win," Bailey said. "We've still got one more to win at home."