A rookie’s swing on Thursday afternoon has pushed the Guardians within a win of their first pennant in a decade. Petey Halpin, who hit just four home runs across the regular season, turned on a 95.9 mph sinker in the fifth inning and drove it 385 feet to right-centre for a two-run shot that broke a tie and decided Game 3.
Gavin Williams did the rest from the mound. The right-hander struck out nine over five innings and gave up two runs on two hits and a walk to earn the win in Cleveland’s 3-2 victory.
Game 4 begins at 6pm local time at Progressive Field. Nick Martinez, who carried a 3.10 ERA through the regular season, takes the ball for Tampa Bay, with the Guardians yet to announce their starter.
A series that keeps flipping
The home team has won all three games so far. Cleveland rolled through Game 1 by 7-3, Tampa Bay hit back 3-1 in Game 2, and Halpin’s homer flipped Game 3 to the Guardians. A win tonight ends the series. A Rays victory would force a Game 5 on Saturday and send the series back to Tropicana Field if a sixth is needed.
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Cleveland arrived in the ALCS the hard way. The Guardians dropped the first two games of the Division Series against the Chicago White Sox before winning three straight to advance.
The weight of 1948
A Cleveland pennant tonight would set up a title shot the city has waited 78 years for. The Guardians, under their previous Cleveland Indians name, last won the World Series in 1948, the longest active championship drought in Major League Baseball.
Their most recent trip to the Fall Classic came in 2016, when they lost a seven-game thriller to the Chicago Cubs. That series ended Chicago’s 108-year wait and left Cleveland holding the longest drought in the sport. A decade on, the number has only grown.
Milwaukee’s 44-year wait
The Brewers punched their ticket on Wednesday, sweeping the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0 in the NLCS. It is Milwaukee’s first World Series appearance since 1982, when the franchise, then in the American League, lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. That remains the only pennant in club history.
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The World Series begins Friday, 23 October in Milwaukee, broadcast on Fox. If the Guardians win tonight, the matchup is locked in: a 78-year drought against a 44-year wait, with one of them guaranteed to end.
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