CHICAGO -- When it comes to tournaments, the cliche in sports is that you just need to survive and advance. After winning two long, ragged games in an electric ballpark, the Cleveland Guardians survived and then survived some more.
Now they'll get a chance to advance.
The Guardians came from behind twice in Game 4 on Thursday night, beating the Chicago White Sox 9-5 and forcing a winner-take-all Game 5 on Saturday in Cleveland. The Guardians arrived in Chicago down 2-0 in this American League Division Series.
"It's what we try to do as an organization," Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez said through a club interpreter. "Try to always compete. Don't quit in any game. What this team is doing is only what we know how to do."
Ramirez and Patrick Bailey homered in the fifth inning in Cleveland's first comeback. Then after the White Sox retook the lead, the Guardians sent 10 batters to the plate while grinding out six runs in the sixth against Chicago's heavily used bullpen.
The White Sox never recovered.
"They're making really good swing decisions," Chicago manager Will Venable said. "They're making contact. We talked about how good a job they do of doing that. When you walk guys, they make you pay."
Both games in Chicago featured a raucous, jam-packed crowd at Rate Field, clad almost uniformly in black, hoping to see the White Sox clinch a postseason series at home for the first time since Oct. 14, 1906 -- six days shy of 120 years.
For now, the wait continues.
The gathering saw two terse, fairly ragged games that featured a lot of strikeouts, walks and hit batters, an ongoing battle of the strike zone that favored Cleveland. Over the two games combined, Guardians pitchers recorded 31 strikeouts to the White Sox's nine. Meanwhile, Cleveland's hitters drew 17 walks, six more than Chicago.
"That's just baseball, man," said Guardians outfielder Chase DeLauter, who, in addition to the win, was celebrating his 25th birthday. "Pitchers making good pitches, hitters hitting good pitches and taking good pitches. The more you control that on both sides of the ball puts you in a good spot to win the ballgame."
Both managers pulled out all the stops in Game 4, burning through 15 pitchers over nine innings. Cleveland got 2⅓ innings from standout rookie Parker Messick in the shortest start of his career to date. After six relievers followed Messick, Guardians manager Steven Vogt turned to probable Game 5 starter Gavin Williams to get the last three outs.
"The script tonight got ripped up in the third," Vogt said. "And when you have to go to the bullpen early, you've got to get creative in a win-or-go-home game."
Cleveland, which won 9-3 in Game 3 on Wednesday, became the sixth team to score at least nine runs in consecutive elimination games. It did it by controlling the strike zone even in an adrenalin-infused atmosphere, even when Chicago relief ace Grant Taylor came on in the sixth.
Taylor has become a sensation in Chicago for his often-dominant, versatile relief work, but on Thursday he didn't retire any of the six batters he faced, allowing four runs on five singles and a pair of walks.
"They just had good at bats, made me come to them," Taylor said. "Obviously two walks isn't going to get the job done. Then when I did come in the zone, they put the ball in play and good things happened for them."
Cleveland's approach was present up and down its lineup and even off the bench, as Bailey's solo blast came in a pinch-hitting spot. In many ways, the Guardians did a better job of channeling the amped-up energy of the gathering than the home team.
"The discussion was if we lose, we're gone," Bailey said. "Might as well go out there and win. We've still got one more to win at home."
With the road team having gone 4-for-4 in the series, the Guardians certainly can't rest on their accomplishments on the South Side. History is against Cleveland, which is 2-9 all-time in win-or-go-home games; the White Sox never have played such a contest during their long history, at least not in a multigame series.
For both teams, it might be a matter of which pitching staff has the most wherewithal remaining. According to ESPN research, Chicago has gotten 12⅔ innings from its starters during the playoffs, the fewest in history through a club's first six postseason games.
But Cleveland's staff has had to work just as hard, so when Saturday rolls around, expect a nail-biter. It will be another game of survivor with the winner this time advancing to the AL Championship Series to face the rested Tampa Bay Rays.
Game 5 will mark the 18th, and final, game between the AL Central opponents this season. Cleveland will be playing to break even in those contests by winning the one that matters most.
"I think it's going to be crazy," Ramirez said. "It's going to be an incredible energy. For us, it's going to be the same mindset: Try to win the game and enjoy the environment that's going to be at Progressive [Field]."