{"id":878680,"date":"2026-10-11T15:16:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878680\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T15:16:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:16:26","slug":"the-opener-williams-skubal-vs-miz-offseason-outlooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878680\/","title":{"rendered":"The Opener: Williams, Skubal vs. Miz, Offseason Outlooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

After falling into an 0-2 deficit against the White Sox, the Guardians completed an epic comeback by winning the next three games to clinch the Division Series. By doing so, they became the first team to win a five-game postseason series after losing the first two games since the 2017 Yankees, who did so against Cleveland themselves. Game 5 yesterday was won by a 2-0 final score. Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez<\/a> provided both runs via a two-run home run in the fourth inning off Sean Burke<\/a>. Ram\u00edrez somehow hit that pitch less than one foot off the ground, and it was the lowest pitch hit for a homer in the postseason during the pitch tracking era (h\/t Mart\u00edn Gallegos of MLB.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

1. Williams dominates in 12-K effort<\/p>\n

Ram\u00edrez provided the offense, and it was Gavin Williams<\/a> who set the tone on the mound. Williams was utterly dominant over 5 2\/3 scoreless innings after closing out Game 4 two days previously. He recorded 12 strikeouts and allowed just two walks and a Kyle Teel<\/a> single in the sixth. With that performance, Williams tied for the second-most strikeouts in a win-or-go-home postseason game, one behind Tarik Skubal\u2019s<\/a> record of 13 in Game 5 of the 2025 ALDS (h\/t Tim Stebbins of MLB.com<\/a>). The Guardians\u2019 bullpen also got in on the action with nine more strikeouts, including four apiece by Hunter Gaddis<\/a> and closer Cade Smith<\/a>. The 21-strikeout total set a new MLB record for a nine-inning game, regular season and postseason included (h\/t Sarah Langs of MLB.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

2. Skubal faces Miz in NLCS Game 1 showdown<\/p>\n

With all the Division Series now complete, the NL Championship Series kicks off tonight with a marquee matchup that should also feature plenty of strikeouts. The Dodgers are sending the lefty Skubal to the hill, while the Brewers counter with flamethrower and likely NL Cy Young winner Jacob Misiorowski<\/a>. Skubal finished the season with 186 K\u2019s in 26 starts. Misiorowski was on another level, leading all of MLB with 252 strikeouts and adding another six in the NLDS against the Padres. Game 1 of the NLCS starts at 7:00pm CT today. Both the Dodgers and Brewers should be releasing their series rosters some time this morning.<\/p>\n

3. Offseason Outlook Series<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a fan of one of the 26 teams currently on the sidelines of October, you can get a head start on the offseason with our Offseason Outlook Series<\/a>. MLBTR Front Office subscribers get an expert breakdown of how each team can address their roster needs over the winter. Nine of those posts are already up on the site, and more will be coming this week. You can sign up for the Front Office subscription here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of David Dermer, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After falling into an 0-2 deficit against the White Sox, the Guardians completed an epic comeback by winning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-878680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}