Inside Gavin Williams’ 11 strikeouts and unfinished sixth inning

Gavin Williams opened his second-inning confrontation with Andrew Benintendi by throwing two knuckle curves for balls. Williams recovered with consecutive sinkers, 97.9 and 98.9 mph, that Benintendi swung through. Then an 89.6 mph sweeper brought a called third strike. The confrontation moved from 2-0 to an out through two misses and a take, using more than one way to acquire a strike.

That sequence was part of an 11-strikeout start against the White Sox in ALDS Game 2 on October 5 at Progressive Field. Williams struck out the side in the second and fifth innings and added two strikeouts in the fourth. Chicago nevertheless won 4-3, leaving his pitching line at five innings, four hits, two earned runs and three walks over 98 pitches.

The line requires an extra explanation: Williams returned for the sixth and allowed a single without recording an out. That runner later scored against the bullpen. His strikeout total describes a varied, forceful arsenal; it does not mean he completed a sixth inning or left with all of his runs settled.

The fastball increased, but the finishes stayed varied

Williams threw 38 four-seamers, 38.8% of the outing, against 27.0% in his pregame regular-season sample. They averaged 99.5 mph, compared with 97.6 in that baseline. Sweepers, curves and sinkers remained substantial parts of the record.

The comparison contains 2,991 physical pitches in 32 regular-season games, March 27 through September 25. Thirty-one physical pitches from April 29 lack both pitch classification and speed in the export. They remain in the usage denominator as unclassified pitches, while velocity averages use measured records. The chart exposes that remainder rather than making it disappear.

The four-seamer produced seven misses in 14 swings. The curve and sinker each produced six, in eight and 11 swings respectively. The sweeper added three misses in seven swings and helped finish Benintendi on a called strike. Williams acquired 19 called strikes as well as 22 misses in 40 swings. His strikeouts were supported by both taken and swung-at pitches.

Three consecutive pitches can carry different jobs

Benintendi's second-inning strikeout illustrates the distinction. The two sinkers recovered the count without a ball entering play; the sweeper finished it without another swing. In the fourth, Williams attacked Benintendi with a four-seamer and two sinkers, getting three consecutive swinging strikes.

The fifth ended another way. Kyle Teel saw three straight curves: an 82.6 mph miss, an 82.9 mph foul and an 84.9 mph blocked swinging strike. That was Williams' 11th strikeout and pitch 91. The official play record retains the blocked-pitch description, resolving a shorter label in the tracking feed.

Left-handed matchups accounted for 76 of his 98 pitches. His four-seam share also increased within that group, from 30.2% in the season sample to 36.8%. The finding therefore survives that handedness check, although a single game cannot show that a new repertoire preference will last.

Strikeouts did not remove the workload

Williams used 26 pitches in the fourth. Teel singled after an 0-2 count, Miguel Vargas walked and Munetaka Murakami singled on a 99.5 mph fastball to drive in Chicago's first run. Williams then struck out Benintendi and Braden Montgomery around a flyout, limiting the inning to one run while still carrying its workload forward.

He finished five innings at 91 pitches with Cleveland ahead 2-1. Vargas opened the sixth by taking three fastballs for balls. Williams recovered to a full count, but Vargas drove a 98.8 mph sinker to left for a 104.7 mph single on pitch 98. Williams left with Vargas at first and nobody out.

Braden Montgomery later doubled against Erik Sabrowski, scoring Vargas and another runner. Williams was charged with Vargas' run, not all three runs Chicago scored in the inning. His final two earned runs comprise Murakami's fourth-inning RBI single and the inherited runner from the sixth.

A late speed change needs its sample attached

Williams' four-seamer averaged approximately 99.7 to 100.2 mph in each of the first four innings. It averaged 98.5 in the fifth and 97.8 in the sixth, with only four measured four-seamers in each of those last two innings. That is a recorded decline within one pitch type, not a diagnosis of fatigue or an explanation of the manager's decision.

There were only seven balls in play, two of them hard-hit. Chicago still made four hits from that contact, including Teel's 78.4 mph single and Chase Meidroth's 89.5 mph single. A high miss rate did not eliminate well-placed contact, walks or the responsibility for a runner left behind.

Williams demonstrated that several pitches could finish hitters in the same outing. The next test is whether that strike acquisition can support more completed innings at a manageable workload. The sixth-inning single and inherited run are part of that evaluation, alongside his 11 strikeouts.