4 moments that doomed Guardians in their Game 1 ALDS loss to White Sox 

It’s long been said that a postseason series doesn’t officially start until a team wins on the road. 

Well, consider the Guardians’ ALDS series against the White Sox officially started. 

Although the Guardians held off the White Sox and won the American League Central, Chicago landed the first blow in the postseason with a 3-0 win at Progressive Field in Game 1 of the first postseason series between the two teams. 

There’s no better time to play the hindsight game than after a loss, and the Guardians' loss to Chicago featured plenty of moments that played a part in the Guardians’ loss. 

Here are four that stood out. 

The Guardians blew multiple opportunities against the White Sox

Not scoring with the bases loaded in the third inning… and the fourth 

Although both of the times the Guardians loaded the bases came with two outs, those are the kind of opportunities you need to capitalize on in the postseason. 

Their opportunity in the third inning went by the wayside when Bryan Hudson was able to get Chase DeLauter to line out after replacing Hagen Smith after he walked the bases loaded. 

An inning later they put together a two out rally thanks to walks to Nathaniel Lowe and Austin Hedges sandwiched between a Travis Bazzana double, but Anthony Kay wiggled out of damage by getting Brayan Rocchio to line out.

Rocctober may not be canceled, but it got off to a sluggish start on Saturday. 

Munetaka Murakami’s towering home run 

Really going out on a limb here, aren’t we? 

After Parker Messick finally kept the White Sox’s offense off the board in the first inning (they scored in the first in every game of the Wild Card Series), Murakami recorded the first blow with a towering 440-foot homer that staked Chicago to a 2-0 lead. 

Although he’s not a rookie in the traditional sense since he played eight seasons in Nippon Professional baseball, he became the fourth White Sox rookie to homer in the postseason along with Gavin Sheets, Luis Robert Jr. and Tadahito Iguchi. 

Murakami went 1-for-8 in the Wild Card Series, but he broke out in a big way in Game 1. The Guardians are going to need to keep him in check the rest of the week if they want to advance to the ALCS. 

Austin Hedges misplaying Angel Martinez’s fantastic throw in the seventh inning 

Martinez recorded a signature defensive play in the sixth inning when he made a great catch at the wall that led to a double play, but he nearly had a second one an inning later when he uncorked a great throw to the plate that would have gotten Kyle Teel out had the ball not popped out of Austin Hedges’ glove. 

The Guardians spent most of the game trailing by multiple runs thanks to Murakami’s home run, but Teel’s run seemed like a huge blow considering the lack of production the Guardians were getting from their offense. 

Not being able to do any damage off Grant Taylor 

After working 2 1/3 innings in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, Taylor had a historic outing for the White Sox on Saturday when he became the sixth pitcher in MLB history to record a four inning save in the postseason. 

And it wasn’t just any four inning save; it was a dominant one that had six strikeouts and just two hits allowed. 

That’s a far cry from Taylor’s appearances against the Guardians in the regular season that included two walk-off hits from Rocchio. 

Taylor won the first postseason battle between the two with a seventh inning strikeout against Rocchio, and it’s a bit frustrating that Cleveland was unable to do any damage off Taylor despite the fact he recorded a new career-high in innings pitched in an outing. 

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