Gavin Williams Continues Historic Playoff Run With Guardians

Baseball players, and starting pitchers specifically, are creatures of habit. Moving the game up a full five hours before first pitch could have been an excuse for someone not to bring out their sharpest stuff.

However, that wasn’t the case for Gavin Williams, who set the tone early and was one of the key reasons the Cleveland Guardians hold a 2-1 series lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS.

Once again, Williams was a phenomenal pitcher in Cleveland’s Game 3 win on Thursday afternoon. He was perfect through three innings, with his only blunder being an RBI triple to Tampa Bay speedster Chandler Simpson, who made contact with a ball so far in that it might have hit him if not for the swing.

The primary storyline coming out of this victory, though, was once again how dominant Williams was on the mound. What the Guardians' starting pitcher

Williams racked up nine more strikeouts in Game 3, setting both MLB and Guardians history along the way.

Let’s start with this: going back to his playoff debut in 2024, he’s racked up 45 strikeouts. That’s tied with Josh Beckett for the third-most punchouts in a pitcher’s first five career postseason starts, and only trailing Bob Gibson (47) and Sandy Koufax (48).

Considering that Cooperstown is typically mentioned in the same sentence when referencing the two pitchers ahead of Williams, this is some incredibly elite company to be in.

Plus, Williams is now just two punchouts behind Corey Kluber (47) for the most in Cleveland franchise history.

The history doesn’t stop there, though. Williams’ current strikeout rate of 45.9 percent is the best among any pitcher through their first six career appearances (minimum 10 innings pitched).

Some pitchers rise to the occasion and elevate their game in October, and so far, Williams has proved he’s one of them.

Looking a little bit closer at Williams’ 2026 postseason run proves just how dominant he’s been on the mound over the last few weeks.

Williams has struck out 33 hitters so far in October, which is the third-most in Cleveland in a single postseason. The two pitchers ahead of him are Orel Hershiser (35 in 1995) and Kluber (35 in 2016).

Even though it’s the strikeouts that have dominated the headlines every time Williams pitches, he stressed after Game 3 that his goal every time he takes the mound is to simply find a way to help the team win.

“Yeah, the punch-outs are cool, but I think there's a bigger goal than just the punch-outs,” Williams said. “I think it's more of trying to help the team win and give the best possible shot throughout the game to get the win.”

Cleveland may have the lead in the ALCS, but the series is far from over. A potential Game 7 between the Guardians and Rays would be on Tuesday in St. Petersburg.

If that were to be the case, Cleveland’s starting pitcher would undoubtedly be Williams, who would have the chance to make even more MLB history.