Chicago Issued 17 Walks in Two Losses — Sean Burke Is the Game 5 Reset
GOATIFYChicago needed one win to reach its first American League Championship Series since 2005. Instead, the White Sox are back in Cleveland for a deciding Game 5, having turned a 2-0 Division Series lead into a two-game scramble. The most revealing number from those defeats is not the 18 runs Cleveland scored. It is the 17 walks Chicago issued across Games 3 and 4.
That loss of command changed the shape of the series. Cleveland no longer needed to manufacture every rally with hard contact; it could wait for free baserunners and force Chicago to use more pitchers. Now manager Will Venable is abandoning the opener arrangement for the first time this postseason and handing Sean Burke the ball from the start. The right-hander was excellent in relief in Game 2. On Saturday night, his task is bigger: restore enough order that the White Sox can play their own game again.
Seventeen walks changed the series before the big hits arrived
Chicago did not lose control of this series in a single spectacular swing. The damage accumulated one plate appearance at a time. Ten walks in Wednesday's 9-3 loss were followed by seven more on Thursday, plus a hit batter. Those are 18 free opportunities across two games when the hit-by-pitch is included, an unsustainable invitation against a lineup that has begun recognizing when Chicago's pitchers are searching for the zone.
Thursday's decisive six-run sixth illustrated the cost. The Guardians built traffic, forced pitching changes and eventually punished the pitches that had to come over the plate. José Ramírez had already hit a two-run homer in the fifth, but reducing Cleveland's comeback to that one swing would miss the underlying story. When a staff struggles to get ahead in counts, even ordinary contact becomes dangerous because runners are already aboard.
The contrast with Chicago's first two wins is sharp. The White Sox could play with their preferred matchups, use Grant Taylor in leverage and ask their young hitters to produce one timely inning. In the two losses at home, the pitching plan itself became the emergency. Venable needed seven pitchers in Game 4, and the bullpen was repeatedly asked to rescue innings that began with avoidable traffic. The Guardians' patience turned Chicago's flexibility into a weakness.
The solution is not necessarily more strikeouts. It is a higher proportion of first-pitch strikes, fewer extended counts and a willingness to let Cleveland put the ball in play without gifting extra baserunners. Chicago's defense and offense can contribute to a close game; neither can protect a pitching staff that gives away that many chances. Game 5 starts with the simpler contest of making Cleveland earn its way aboard.
Burke gives Chicago a conventional start — and its young bats a chance
Burke's assignment is not an act of blind faith. In Game 2, he entered in the third inning and gave Chicago 5 1/3 innings of one-hit, one-run relief. He struck out six and retired 13 consecutive batters at one point. That stretch bought the White Sox the time to turn a deficit into a 4-3 win, and it showed that Burke could attack Cleveland without asking a parade of relievers to complete the middle innings.
Starting him directly changes the rhythm. Chicago has used openers and bulk relievers throughout this postseason, but those plans depend on clean handoffs and a rested group behind them. By giving Burke the first pitch, Venable removes one decision from the opening innings. If the right-hander works efficiently, Chicago can choose later matchups rather than being forced into them by an early walk or a short outing.
There is evidence for confidence beyond one postseason appearance. Burke finished the regular season 11-7 with a 3.34 ERA and 185 strikeouts, while his familiarity with Cleveland has been extensive. The Guardians know his arsenal; there is no tactical surprise left to unveil. His advantage is the ability to locate enough strikes that Cleveland cannot simply wait for the next free pass. The key will be avoiding the dangerous middle ground between nibbling and throwing hittable pitches in predictable counts.
Burke's effectiveness also matters to Chicago's lineup. Braden Montgomery, Chase Meidroth and Munetaka Murakami helped create the 2-0 series lead with timely at-bats, and they will not need to produce a huge early rally if their starter keeps the score manageable. That is the overlooked benefit of a conventional start: the offense can take patient at-bats rather than feeling obliged to erase a bullpen-created deficit every other inning. Chicago's young hitters have already shown they can win a tight October game. Burke's job is to give them another one.
Williams and Bailey have their own high-risk Cleveland counterplan
The Guardians' pitching choice is hardly conservative. Gavin Williams is scheduled to start just two days after entering Game 4 in the ninth inning to close out the win. He threw 18 pitches in that appearance after Cade Smith needed 31, an unusual sequence for a pitcher expected to carry a winner-take-all start. Manager Stephen Vogt has said Williams is ready, but readiness and a predictable workload are different questions.
Williams gives Cleveland a genuine swing-and-miss weapon. He struck out 11 White Sox hitters over five-plus innings in Game 2 and finished the regular season with 248 strikeouts. That ceiling can overwhelm Chicago's young lineup, especially if his velocity and command appear early. Yet his Game 2 start also ended with the White Sox scoring after he left, a reminder that dominance for five innings does not automatically settle a nine-inning playoff game.
Catcher Patrick Bailey and Cleveland's coaching staff have to manage that balance. If Williams is sharp, they can lean into his strikeout stuff and try to stop Chicago's offense from setting the pace. If the short turnaround makes his command inconsistent, Vogt must recognize the problem before the lineup turns a walk and one extra-base hit into a decisive inning. The same standard applies to the Guardians that Chicago failed to meet in Games 3 and 4: prevent free traffic and keep the bullpen available for the innings that matter most.
Neither team enters with a perfectly rested relief corps. Cleveland needed an unexpectedly long parade of pitchers Thursday, while Smith and Williams both worked in the ninth. The off-day helped, but it did not erase every pitch thrown during a draining series. The managers' real challenge is knowing when a trusted arm has reached its limit, not merely which pitcher has the better season-long statistics. One stubborn inning could be the difference between advancing and watching the championship series at home.
Game 5 will test the bullpen and Chicago's missing power
Both clubs have already shown how quickly their relief options can be stretched. Erick Fedde gave Chicago 3 2/3 useful innings in Game 4, but he threw 61 pitches, making a repeat assignment difficult. Rookie Hagen Smith walked three hitters while working as an opener and has already appeared three times in the series. Grant Taylor was nearly untouchable early in the postseason, recording 7 2/3 scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts and one walk before Thursday, then suffered the kind of outing that can unsettle even a trusted closer.
That does not mean Taylor has suddenly become unreliable. His four-inning save in Game 1 and four-out save in Game 2 are part of why Chicago came so close to a sweep. But repeated looks matter. Cleveland saw him six times during the regular season, and Taylor's own execution deteriorated as the pressure mounted in Game 4. Venable needs to decide whether to return to his best high-leverage arm at the first sign of danger or hold him for a later, cleaner matchup.
Cleveland's offense has a similar decision to make at the plate. José Ramírez can change a game with one swing, but the Guardians' best recent innings have also involved supporting hitters creating traffic around him. Travis Bazzana and the rest of the order must resist chasing pitches simply because Burke starts aggressively. If they force Chicago back into long counts, the visitors could be dealing with their weakest bullpen matchups earlier than planned.
Chicago's pitchers are not the only unit under pressure. The lineup has hit just two home runs in four ALDS games: Munetaka Murakami went deep in Game 1, while Miguel Vargas homered in the ninth inning of Game 4 with the result already out of reach. That is a striking contrast with the White Sox's 211 regular-season homers. Cleveland starter Gavin Williams allowed 28 long balls in 2026, so the visitors have a plausible route to changing the scoreboard with one clean swing rather than relying on a chain of singles and sacrifices.
Scoring first could help Chicago settle, but it is not a solution by itself: the White Sox opened the scoring in both Games 3 and 4 and still lost. The real opportunity is to pair an early lead with patient, forceful at-bats and avoid giving Cleveland free baserunners in reply. That combination would force Vogt to use his bullpen reactively and could make the Guardians' comeback momentum irrelevant.
There is an extra twist to the venue. The road team has won each of the first four games, so Progressive Field has not supplied the expected protection for Cleveland. Chicago won the regular-season series 7-6, outscoring the Guardians by a single run. The clubs have been nearly inseparable for months, and the deciding game is unlikely to reward whichever side has the more inspiring narrative. It will reward cleaner innings, better sequencing and fewer unforced decisions. The winner advances to face Tampa Bay in the ALCS; the loser will have all winter to revisit the pitches that got away.
Burke does not have to throw a shutout to change Chicago's postseason. He has to reverse the pattern that let Cleveland back into the series: get ahead, avoid the easy walks and deliver enough length for Venable to choose his relievers deliberately. Williams faces his own unusual test after closing Game 4, while the Guardians must prove their patient offense can stay disciplined against a pitcher who just handled them in relief.
For the White Sox, the path back to the ALCS begins with the simplest possible adjustment. Seventeen walks over two defeats cannot become another night's identity, and two home runs in four games cannot be the full measure of an offense that hit 211 in the regular season. Burke's command matters most if Chicago can turn the extra breathing room into meaningful runs. Game 5 will reveal whether Burke can give Chicago the strikes, time and control it has been missing.
