Gavin Williams Starts Guardians' ALDS Game 5

Gavin Williams wants the ball, and the Guardians are giving it to him. Two nights after coming out of the bullpen to get the final three outs of Game 4, Williams will start Saturday night's winner-take-all ALDS Game 5 against Sean Burke and the Chicago White Sox at Progressive Field, per the Associated Press.

The winner flies to Tampa Bay for Game 1 of the ALCS on Monday. The loser goes home. And in a series where the road team has won all four games, nobody should feel safe.

The Big Rig closed Game 4, now he starts Game 5

Williams was the eighth Cleveland pitcher in the 9-5 Game 4 win at Rate Field. All-Star closer Cade Smith got into trouble in the ninth when Miguel Vargas homered and Munetaka Murakami walked, so Stephen Vogt handed it to his ace for the first relief appearance of his big league career. Williams needed 18 pitches, gave up one hit, struck out one and slammed the door.

Then he walked past Vogt's office and told him he was good to go for Game 5.

"Gavin wants the ball. We want him to have the ball, and it's his game," Vogt said Friday.

"The body feels good right now," Williams said. "I throw a 'pen on those days and everybody knows it. So there's nothing different."

The right-hander went 14-8 with a 3.76 ERA in the regular season and led the AL with 248 strikeouts. In Game 2 he struck out 11 over five-plus innings, became the first pitcher in franchise history to whiff five straight batters in a postseason game, and threw 16 pitches over 100 mph. He still took a 4-3 loss after the White Sox put up three in the sixth.

Sean Burke has Cleveland's number

The White Sox are going with a traditional starter for the first time in seven games this postseason, and it makes sense. Burke is 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA against Cleveland this year over 22 2/3 innings. He won Game 2 as the bulk guy, retiring 13 straight at one point while allowing one run and one hit with six strikeouts.

Williams has had a tougher time with Chicago. He is 0-1 with a 3.76 ERA in six appearances against the Sox this season, with 40 strikeouts and 11 walks.

"They're still a hard team to pitch to," Williams said. "I know what they've got, and they know what I've got."

All hands on deck

The bullpens are the wild card. Smith threw 50 total pitches over Games 3 and 4 and spent Friday getting treatment, per Field Level Media. Chicago closer Grant Taylor, who saved the first two games, says he is good to go after a four-run, zero-out ninth in Game 4.

José Ramírez and Jo Adell drove this comeback in Chicago, and now Cleveland needs one more. The Big Rig on the mound at Progressive Field and a ticket to Tampa on the line. Game 5s do not get better than this.