On Wed, Oct 7, the Cleveland Guardians played in Game 3 of their American League Division Series against the Chicago White Sox, who had won the first two games of the series at Progressive Field. With the series shifting to the south side of Chicago, the Guardians were facing the prospect of being eliminated in a playoff series against an AL Central opponent for the second straight postseason following a Wild Card series defeat to the Detroit Tigers the year before. Cleveland was shut out on in the series opener 3-0 and fell short 4-3 in Game 2. But in that latter game, they nearly rallied as Jo Adell came up to bat in the bottom of the eighth with a runner on first base. Adell hit a first-pitch fastball from White Sox reliever Grant Taylor out to deep left center field and the ball would have been a home run in most major league stadiums. Unfortunately, Progressive Field has a large left field wall and the ball barely missed going over it by a few feet. Adell had an RBI triple that scored Chase DeLauter to get the Guardians down by a run, but he was stranded at third base as Nathaniel Lowe lined out to left field to end the inning.
Adell was a big trade acquisition for Cleveland at the MLB trade deadline as he was acquired from the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for minor league prospect catcher Jacob Cozart. With his arrival, Adell brought an immediate offensive boost to a Guardians team that was seeking to overcome a small deficit in a close and tight AL Central division that was led for the majority of the season by the White Sox. Cleveland would win a crucial series against Chicago in mid-September that earned them the head-to-head tiebreaker and they clinched the division title with an 85-77 record on the final weekend of the season. The Guardians had earned a “first-round bye” with a mediocre record, but being one of the two best division winners in the American League afforded them that comfort. Cleveland watched as the sixth-seeded White Sox defeated the third-seeded Houston Astros in an AL Wild Card Series in two games. A major matchup between two division rivals who had never faced off in the postseason before was on tap.
In the first two games of the series, Adell was the starting designated hitter as he has settled into this role following a minor knee injury he suffered in August. In Game 1, Adell struck out in all his four at-bats and in Game 2, he improved with his first career postseason hit and RBI. Offensive struggles were plaguing the Guardians lineup as their big hitters in José Ramirez, Steven Kwan, Travis Bazzana and others were struggling to provide run support for their pitching staff.
To start the game against Chicago, the top of Cleveland’s lineup were retired handily by Sean Newcomb, who was starting the game as the opener. The opener for the Guardians was Daniel Espino, who got himself into some trouble with a couple of early baserunners and one of them came home on an RBI double by Kyle Teel. The White Sox had an early 1-0 lead, but they couldn’t add onto it as the next two batters struck out to end the inning. The top of the second began with Adell getting his first at-bat of the day, with him hitting a first-pitch fastball from Newcomb down the first base line and he beat out a toss from Munetaka Murakami to Newcombe that was dropped for an infield single. Adell was then caught in a line drive double play that Lowe hit into.
The top of the third inning came with the same score of 1-0 Chicago. Bazzana led off the inning with a walk against Bryan Hudson, then after a lineout by Patrick Bailey that nearly resulted in another double play, Brayan Rocchio came up and hit a ball to left field for a single. Kwan then hit the second pitch he saw from Hudson to left field and Bazzana came home to score. The game was tied as Will Venable went to his bullpen and brought in Hagen Smith to pitch with two runners on base and one out. Ramírez was up next and he walked on four pitches to load the bases. DeLauter came up with a chance to give Cleveland the lead, but he hit into a force out where Murakami threw the ball to Teel at home plate for the second out of the inning. The bases were reloaded as Adell was coming up with a chance to have another clutch moment in his first career playoff series.
Hitting in the cleanup spot with the Guardians, Adell was seeking to have a heroically clutch hit for his new team. This 2026 season has already provided a highlight reel of clutch moments for Jordan Scott Adell, who made three amazing home-run robbing catches against the Seattle Mariners for the Angels on Apr 4 and also had some clutch hits as well before being traded to Cleveland. Adell faced Smith for his second at-bat of the game and he was down 1-2, with him swinging at a fastball on the outside edge of the plate. The ball went off the bat of Adell and through to right field for a base hit. All three runners on base for Cleveland scored as Adell raced into third for a clutch bases-clearing three-run triple. Adell had given the Guardians a lead that they would not relinquish as they added on five more runs and won the game 9-3 to keep their season alive.
Adell’s three-run triple in the bottom of the third was eerily similar to a famous clutch hit in Angels postseason history. The score in the game was tied 1-1 when Adell came up and the bases were loaded and it was in the third inning. The circumstances of the clutch hit were almost identical to the 2002 World Series Game 7 for the Anaheim Angels against the San Francisco Giants where Garret Anderson hit a ball down the right field line that scored David Eckstein, Darin Erstad and Tim Salmon to break a 1-1 tie. The hit by Anderson was the final score in the World Series that the Halos won for their first and only championship in franchise history. In the case of Adell, his three-run hit was a triple and not a double like Anderson’s but it was still clutch.
In the case of the 2026 Cleveland Guardians, their season stays alive for one more game as they seek to overcome a 2-0 series deficit over their division rival White Sox and look to make it to their second ALCS in three postseasons. The “Guards” also seek to break the longest active championship drought in all MLB as they have not won a World Series since 1948. For now, Adell achieved his most clutch playoff moment to date with more to come as the cleanup hitter for a team seeking to break a long championship drought of its own, just like the 2002 Angels.
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