Travis Bazzana and Cleveland are through to the American League Championship Series after completing their stirring comeback against Chicago.
Down two games to nil in their AL division series, the Guardians won the next three - clinching it on Sunday (AEST) with a 2-0 win at home.
Bazzana, the first Australian to be Major League Baseball's No.1 draft pick, had a quiet night at the plate in game five and hit none for three.
Starting pitcher Gavin Williams and their in-form third base Jose Ramirez were the heroes for Cleveland. They are only the 11th team to rally from two games down and clinch a best-of-five series in the MLB post-season.
Tampa Bay will host Cleveland on Tuesday (AEST) in game one of the AL championship series. Whoever wins that best-of-seven series will play in the World Series.
Williams went 5.2 innings and racked up 12 strikeouts, with two walks, to silence the White Sox bats. It was just two days since Williams earned the save in game four.
“That was big boy stuff today,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.
“We’ve seen other performances like that in the post-season, but to do it in this stage and these types of games facing three-straight elimination and you have one of your starters say 'I will pitch whenever you need me to', super impressive.”
Cleveland's pitchers ended up with 21 strikeouts on Sunday, a record for a nine-inning game in the post-season. Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith continued to shut out Chicago in relief once Williams went ouf of the game.
Ramirez continued his heroics, hitting a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth.
Ramírez homered on a knuckle-curve pitch 0.74 feet above ground, the lowest pitch hit for a post-season home run since tracking started in 2008, according to MLB Statcast, and the lowest hit by Ramirez in his 14-year big league career.
Steven Kwan had singled leading off the fourth ahead of Ramírez's sixth post-season homer, which went just over the wall near the right-field line.
Cleveland, previously nicknamed the Indians, last made the World Series in 2016. They haven't won the World Series since 1948 - the longest major league drought.
- with the AP
