{"id":825224,"date":"2026-10-09T07:51:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T07:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/825224\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T07:51:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T07:51:47","slug":"alds-game-4-chicago-white-sox-bullpen-and-grant-taylor-run-dry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/825224\/","title":{"rendered":"ALDS Game 4: Chicago White Sox bullpen and Grant Taylor run dry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago White Sox right-hander Grant Taylor had effectively been manager Will Venable\u2019s get-out-of-jail-free card.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old had been the team\u2019s best reliever this season, and in the playoffs, Venable has been able to deploy him as the ace of a team relying daily on bullpen games. Taylor hadn\u2019t allowed an earned run in 7 2\/3 innings across three appearances in the postseason, including a four-inning save in Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians, and struck out 11 in those outings.<\/p>\n

But it caught up with him and the White Sox at the most inopportune time Thursday. Taylor faced six hitters, failed to record an out, threw more balls (10) than strikes (eight) and surrendered four runs in a six-run sixth inning that torpedoed the White Sox in a 9-5 loss<\/a> to the Guardians in Game 4 of the ALDS at Rate Field. The loss forced a winner-take-all Game 5 on Saturday in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Column: Best-laid plans go awry for the Chicago White Sox, who now face a do-or-die ALDS Game 5 on the road<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Has Taylor been overused facing the Guardians three times in four games?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Taylor answered matter-of-factly.<\/p>\n

Was he gassed from the 103 pitches he had thrown in his trio of postseason games?<\/p>\n

\u201cBody felt good,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cStuff felt good. Just didn\u2019t execute.\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes two to tango, and the Guardians felt the repeated looks they\u2019ve had against Taylor and the rest of the White Sox bullpen has benefitted them.<\/p>\n

The White Sox relief corps had a 1.04 ERA in 26 playoff innings, and after taking a 2-0 series lead in the ALDS, Taylor had emerged as the darling of the group.<\/p>\n

Venable and the rest of the coaching staff hadn\u2019t adhered to tradition in managing their pitching staff \u2014 they approached the playoffs with a mindset of maximizing matchups to pick up 27 outs and win games.<\/p>\n

Game 4 photos: Chicago White Sox lose 9-5 to Cleveland Guardians in ALDS<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But in a best-of-five series, the Guardians have had plenty of looks at Taylor and the rest of the relievers. His four-seam fastball doesn\u2019t carry the same zip, and the break on his curveball isn\u2019t as knee-jerking when a hitter has seen it a second or third time.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the more you see a certain guy, kind of not necessarily more comfortable, but you get to see that kind of shapes more and more,\u201d Patrick Bailey said. \u201cDefinitely helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey hit a fifth-inning solo home run off Erick Fedde that cut an early White Sox lead in half. He was the first hitter Taylor faced in the sixth inning and singled to give the Guardians a lead they would not relinquish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for me it\u2019s more of a mindset shift that our guys have,\u201d Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. \u201cObviously both teams are familiar. There\u2019s no secrets. There\u2019s no surprises. Every hitter has seen every bullpen guy multiple times throughout the course of the year and in this series. It comes down to execution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagen Smith reprised his role as opener Thursday after filling that task in Game 1 of both the wild-card round and the ALDS. Smith had recorded eight outs or more in those two games but threw two-thirds of an inning in Wednesday\u2019s Game 3, allowing a run on two walks.<\/p>\n

A third look in six days hurt him too.<\/p>\n

He failed to make it out of the first inning, recording two outs and walking three, forcing Venable to turn to Fedde to escape a bases-loaded jam.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Guardians dugout celebrates after Jose Ramirez (11) hit a two-run home run in the top of the fifth inning against the White Sox in of Game 4 of their AL Division Series on Oct. 8, 2026, at Rate Field. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old wiggled out of it, but he allowed the leadoff home run to Bailey and a one-out single to Steven Kwan in the fifth to end his night. Jordan Hicks came on and promptly served up a two-run run blast to Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez that gave the Guardians the lead and temporarily silenced the 39,920 fans at Rate Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of their pitchers, and they know me,\u201d Ram\u00edrez said in Spanish after the game. \u201cThe pitcher has a plan, I have a plan, and thanks to God, things came out in my favor, and that\u2019s what I hoped. Thankfully, we won the game, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox\u2019s pitching plan late in the season and in the playoffs has relied on multiple pitchers succeeding, and for four games, it had worked almost flawlessly. But in the last two games, the Guardians offense hit back and derailed the bullpen games that have made the Sox successful.<\/p>\n

To advance to the American League Championship Series, they\u2019ll need one night in Cleveland, where their army of relievers can piece together 27 outs against a lineup that has had plenty of looks against them. But they\u2019ll arguably need Taylor the most in that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be available for anything,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIf they want me to go nine, then go for it. I\u2019m going to do everything in the next couple of days to be ready to go and put my body on the line for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Sox will take solace in their hitters having had looks at the Guardians arms and taxing them. Vogt turned to closer Cade Smith in the eighth inning, a day after he had thrown 19 pitches in two innings. The All-Star closer was yanked after he surrendered a solo home run to Miguel Vargas and walked Munetaka Murakami.<\/p>\n

Vogt turned to Gavin Williams, who started Game 2 and was in line to start Game 5, to close out the game. Williams needed 18 pitches but forced a winner-take-all contest Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, small victories there, I think,\u201d Venable said after the loss. \u201cI also think that those guys will be ready to go. As we\u2019ve battled back and forth with these guys, obviously fitting that it\u2019s going to come down to this. It\u2019s been how the back and forth has been all year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, there\u2019s some small win in making Cade pitch (31) pitches, two up and then getting Gavin in the game as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Martinez is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago White Sox right-hander Grant Taylor had effectively been manager Will Venable\u2019s get-out-of-jail-free card. The 24-year-old had been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[51994,6556,2458,10945,5,138,49,100356,2561,51,133,11613,3632,204,865,4,2305,396,47224,2562,998],"class_list":["post-825224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-al-division-series","tag-alds","tag-american-league-division-series","tag-anthony-kay","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicago-white-sox-bullpen","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-erick-fedde","tag-grant-taylor","tag-hagen-smith","tag-jordan-hicks","tag-jose-ramirez","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-white-sox","tag-white-sox-guardians-score","tag-whitesox","tag-will-venable"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117409870582285997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}