The Chicago White Sox were aiming to party on Wednesday in front of their home fans.
But the Cleveland Guardians had other ideas.
The Guardians scored four runs in the third inning on the way to defeating the Sox 9-3 in Game 3 of the American League Division Series in front of a sellout crowd of 40,590 at Rate Field.
Jo Adell had the big hit in the inning, driving in three runs with a triple to help the Guardians fight off elimination. Game 4 is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Rate Field with the Sox leading the best-of-five series 2-1.
Sox pitchers issued 10 walks while Sox hitters struck out 19 times on Wednesday.
“We’ve been in tough spots where we haven’t played our best games, we’ve played good games — whatever the result, these guys came back the next day,” manager Will Venable said. “It’s really kind of been the story of our group and being able to bounce back no matter what happens.”
Seven Guardian pitchers combined for the 19 strikeouts, the most punchouts in a nine-inning postseason game in major-league history.
Wednesday began well for the Sox in their attempt to advance to the AL Championship Series.
Sam Antonacci drew a leadoff walk in the first inning and moved to second on a single by Miguel Vargas. With one out, Kyle Teel drove in Antonacci with a double to right field, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“I’ve never seen that before, especially all black out, it was unbelievable,” Vargas said of the crowd. “This is what we expected coming back home, and hopefully the same way (Thursday).”
Teel’s hit gave the Sox runners on second and third with one out. Guardians starter Daniel Espino struck out Chase Meidroth. Cleveland then called on Foster Griffin out of the bullpen and he struck out Tristan Peters as the Sox were limited to one run.
Griffin had seven strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings.
Sean Newcomb had two scoreless innings as the opener for the Sox.
The game flipped in the third inning.
The Sox turned to Bryan Hudson, who walked Travis Bazzana to begin the inning. Bazzana moved to second on a one-out single by Brayan Rocchio. Steven Kwan followed with an RBI single to left field, tying the score at 1-1.
Hagen Smith replaced Hudson and walked José Ramírez to load the bases. Chase DeLauter hit a grounder to first baseman Munetaka Murakami, who threw to the plate for a force out.
The bases were still loaded for Adell. Smith got ahead in the count 1-2 when Adell poked the ball down the first-base line for the bases-clearing triple, giving the Guardians a 4-1 lead.
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“He made a good swing on it,” Smith said.
Venable said of the inning as a whole: “The walks and some contact there just made it tough. And then that at-bat with Adell, you get him two strikes, he does a nice job fighting off a fastball and hitting the ball hard. So just got to be able to execute a little bit better, get outs.
“And, again, talked about this the whole series, that these guys are going to make you pay for walks. First couple games, they didn’t. But today, they did.”
The Sox cut into the deficit in the fourth. Meidroth led off with a double and scored on a double by Peters, making it 4-2.
“I was just trying to move him over to third, trying to battle and put something in play, especially when I got to two strikes,” Peters said of the nine-pitch at-bat.
But again, the Sox were held to just one run in the inning. Braden Montgomery struck out against Griffin. Randal Grichuk lined out to left field against Shawn Armstrong, and Colson Montgomery struck out.
The Guardians added a run in the fifth when Ramírez got a great break from third base and scored ahead of Meidroth’s throw on a grounder DeLauter hit to the drawn-in second baseman.
Trailing 5-2, the Sox let an opportunity go to waste in the bottom of the fifth. Antonacci singled and Vargas walked, bringing up Murakami with two on and no outs. He grounded out to second, moving both runners into scoring position. Teel hit a liner that the second baseman Bazzana caught. His throw to second beat Vargas back to the bag for an inning-ending double play.
The Sox loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth. Antonacci got hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, bringing in Braden Montgomery to bring the Sox within 5-3. Ramírez made a tremendous diving attempt at third on a Vargas liner, smothering the ball and throwing him out at first to end the inning.
The Sox finished 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
“A couple times we were one hit away, but it’s a baseball game,” Vargas said. “That’s how baseball goes. We did a really good job the previous two games and we’re going to be just fine for (Thursday).”
Ramírez added a two-run triple in the eighth and the Guardians scored two more in the ninth.
Cleveland closer Cade Smith struck out five of the six batters he faced over the final two innings as the Sox suffered their first loss of this postseason.
The Sox get another chance at closing out the series Thursday. If they win, it would be their first clinch of a postseason series at home since 1906.
“This is what we do all year, we’re really good (bouncing) back the next day,” Vargas said. “We have a short memory and I think we’re going to be ready for (Thursday).”