AL DIVISION SERIES: WHITE SOX VS GUARDIANS

October 10, 2026

Stephen Vogt

Progressive Field

Cleveland Guardians

Postgame 5 Press Conference

White Sox, 0 - Guardians - 2

Q. Stephen, talking before the game about how a playoff game can feel like a year, couple that with the long run you guys have already been on, baseball is unique in that you guys celebrate every step of the way.

What is the value of celebrating along the way knowing that you have bigger goals?

STEPHEN VOGT: Yeah, I think particularly in baseball, it's such a long season, and winning a baseball game is so hard to do. And I think the boys need to celebrate every step of the way, because you never know when it's going to be over. You never know -- you have to celebrate each stage accomplished, and I'm so happy for our guys tonight. I couldn't be more proud of them, our group, our staff, our coaches, front office, ownership.

I mean, this was a difficult year, and for us to be one step away from the World Series, our ultimate goal, this is really exciting.

Q. Stephen, kind of along those lines, you saw -- we know about the knight helmet, and we saw Hedgey doing that after the game. I was just wondering, when you have a clubhouse like that that kind of embraces something fun like that, what does it do just in terms of staying relaxed, staying loose, and how valuable is that in this series where you've faced three games in a row where it was like, you know, you're on the brink of elimination?

STEPHEN VOGT: Yeah. I mean, it started in spring training. The boys went to Medieval Times and had a team outing and a couple guys bought a sword and a helmet. And I don't love the helmet, but the boys do. So it's fine, and we're here.

So I think -- but you have to celebrate every single win, because it is really hard to accomplish a win in the big leagues every single night, and they're all special. And Austin Hedges and his leadership in that clubhouse is why we're here. And who he is, the consistent person that he is, you couple that with all the other leaders in that clubhouse, these boys know how to have fun. They know how to work hard, and they know how to go out and win.

Q. Tell me about Gavin, the fact that he pitches in Game 2, Game 4 he's out of the pen, and tonight he's starting as well, too. Is he just overall just a gamer and always ready to go or what are the thoughts?

STEPHEN VOGT: Honestly, it's hard to put thoughts together with what Gavin did in this series. Ask him to do something he's never done, and then asking him again to go do something he's never done, pitch two days after you've pitched in a game. And that was big-boy stuff today. That was, I got you guys. I'm going to be on my A-game, and I'm going to give you as many pitches as I can.

That was so impressive. We've seen other performances like that in the postseason, but to do it in this stage and these types of games facing three straight elimination and you have one of your starters say I will pitch whenever you need me to, super impressive, and I don't think we could have asked for anything more from him tonight.

Q. How surprised were you he came out and struck out the side? He's going on one day's rest, and I know he's one of the better pitchers in the league, but still he was strong like he hadn't pitched in two or three weeks?

STEPHEN VOGT: Yeah. I think that's just who he is. When he stopped by my office after Game 4 and said I'll take the ball, I'm ready to go. I mean, it was five minutes after we shook hands. You just know that his mindset for the last 48 hours was I'm going to go out and I'm going to win this game.

And when you will yourself to do that and you work as hard as he does and you believe in yourself the way he does, you get a performance like that. I mean, that was -- that was unbelievable.

Q. Piggybacking off that, he had 12 strikeouts, which tied a franchise playoff record, and then you guys as a pitching staff had 21. How do those numbers hit you?

STEPHEN VOGT: Our pitchers are incredible. I mean, all four of them tonight, we asked a ton of them this whole series. That was five games each for, you know, Hunter and Cade. I think Garrett pitched in four. And multiple innings from Cade.

And when you miss bats, they can't get anything going. And they just shut them down, and that's a really, really good offense over there. I want to congratulate Will Venable and Chris Getz and the White Sox on an unbelievable season.

We had some really tough battles all year. We knew it was going to come down to Game 5. Of course, we knew it was going to be a close game with a lot of drama, but we had a lot of fun competing against them and we're fortunate to be moving on against a team like that.

Q. The regular season, guys like Gavin and José both had moments during the regular season where they were struggling whether it was battling injuries or just working through some kinks. How can that grind help guys work through stuff over the course of time and get them ready for this?

STEPHEN VOGT: Very few people go wire to wire with phenomenal seasons. You're going to go through ups and downs. You're going to have some times where you struggle as a starter. You're going to have some games where you just don't have it, but you learn from those and you understand, okay, what did I feel, what went wrong, how do I make sure that doesn't happen in a big moment. And that's why you play 162 games. That's why you stick with guys. That's why you believe in guys and give them opportunities. And man, we had so many guys step up over the last five games. It's incredible.

Q. Stephen, Ramírez no surprises with what he does, but how would you describe that moment when the ball left the yard and really his performance this whole series?

STEPHEN VOGT: Yeah. It was like we got our backs against the wall and he said, all right, I got you, and that's what he's been doing for this franchise long before I got here. And he's been through a lot this year. We've been through a lot this year, and we cannot wait to play on Monday and I can't wait to keep watching José Ramírez do what he does.

Q. Can you describe what it means to you to see Hunter Gaddis go out like that after struggling early in the series?

STEPHEN VOGT: Gaddis has been so consistent for us all year. We always say when bullpen guys have a tough one, we talk about them. When they're really good, we never talk about them.

So Hunter has taken the ball probably more than anybody in the bullpen throughout the course of the year. We ask him to do a ton. He has to face the best hitters in the lineup more often than not and he goes out and turns that in. He got four big outs for us tonight and was phenomenal throughout the series. That is somebody I will never bet against.

Q. Did you know he had a no hitter going and were you almost relieved when he gave up the hit so you wouldn't have had to think about what that would look like pulling him?

STEPHEN VOGT: I was well aware of the no hitter. I was counting outs. Again, it's a cool moment. And you think about it. Obviously the pitch count got up. I didn't even think twice when they got the first hit. It's we need to get 27 outs because we need to move on. Again not relief, but at the same time, it was counting outs, not necessarily how many hits they had.

Q. Do you have any words left to describe what José means to this franchise?

STEPHEN VOGT: He's Cleveland. I mean, he's Cleveland baseball. He chose multiple times throughout his career to stay here. He loves this city. He loves this franchise. He loves his teammates. José means everything to this city, and I'm just happy that I get to watch him play every night.

Q. What does it say about Erik Sabrowski to come into that situation against that hitter to come through?

STEPHEN VOGT: Again, our back end of the bullpen has been the lifeblood of this team since I've been here. They have the highest leverage. They have the toughest outs to get. And Eric came in, you just felt like he was going to do what he did and challenged a really good hitter in a big moment where he didn't have room for error and got a punch-out when we desperately needed it.

Q. Because of what you said about José, you know, he is Cleveland baseball, we've asked you a lot about coming back from the surgery. When he gets hot like this in the playoffs, three games in a row and does what he did, like what does that do for the entire roster?

STEPHEN VOGT: We all love watching José play, and when he shows up like he has, it just makes all of us better. He raises the energy. He raises the -- just the belief, and I've been able to watch him for only three years. I know everybody in Cleveland has watched it for a long time, but that's what big time players do. That's what Hall of Famers do.