Guardians Name Williams vs Burke for Winner-Take-All ALDS Game 5

Cleveland Guardians ace Gavin Williams will start Saturday night’s winner-take-all Game 5 of the American League Division Series against Sean Burke and the Chicago White Sox, NBC Sports reported Oct. 9. Yahoo Sports, carrying the Associated Press account, confirmed the same pitching matchup for the Progressive Field decider.

Manager Stephen Vogt made the call Friday after Williams closed Thursday’s 9-5 Game 4 win in Chicago with his first major-league relief appearance. The right-hander threw 18 pitches, allowed one hit and struck out one to finish an eighth-pitcher night after closer Cade Smith allowed a Miguel Vargas homer and walked Munetaka Murakami, NBC Sports and Yahoo Sports reported.

“Gavin wants the ball. We want him to have the ball, and it’s his game,” Vogt said, according to both outlets. Williams told reporters he walked by Vogt’s office after Game 4 and said he was ready, adding that his body felt good after morning treatment and that throwing a game-mound “pen” was “even better” than a normal between-starts session.

Williams went 14-8 with a 3.76 ERA in the regular season and led the American League with 248 strikeouts, the reports said. In Monday’s Game 2 loss he struck out 11 over five-plus innings, becoming the first pitcher in franchise history to whiff five straight batters in a postseason game, and threw 16 pitches over 100 mph. Against the White Sox this year he is 0-1 with a 3.76 ERA, 40 strikeouts and 11 walks across six starts and seven appearances.

Burke gets the ball for Chicago in the club’s first traditional start of the postseason after six games with an opener, Yahoo Sports noted. The right-hander is 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA in five appearances and three starts versus Cleveland this year. He earned the Game 2 win after entering in the third and retiring 13 straight at one stretch while allowing one run on one hit with six strikeouts over 5⅓ innings.

Manager Will Venable said he approached Burke on Wednesday about starting and called him “the bulk guy” for Saturday. “As we kind of evaluated the set of guys that we have and that we’ll use tomorrow, it made sense to start him,” Venable said, per NBC Sports and Yahoo Sports.

The series is tied 2-2 after the road team won the first four games. The winner opens the ALCS at Tampa Bay on Monday. Cleveland took the AL Central by one game over Chicago, which sits 9-8 against the Guardians in the season series, both outlets reported. Venable framed Game 5 as a fitting end to a year-long rivalry that stretched through the final weekend of the regular season.

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Verification: Game 5 starter announcements, Williams’ Game 4 relief line, Vogt and Williams quotes, regular-season and Game 2 notes, Burke’s traditional-start framing and Venable comments, ALCS destination and season-series context come from NBC Sports (Associated Press, Oct. 9, 2026) and Yahoo Sports (Joe Reedy / AP, Oct. 9, 2026).