Chandler Simpson Was Everywhere in ALCS Game 5

Image courtesy of David Dermer-Imagn Images

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It's not so much inevitability as unavoidability—and yes, the two are different. Chandler Simpson rarely feels inevitable. The Rays don't bat him at the top of the order, so it doesn't feel like he's always in the batter's box, somehow. Nor, when he comes up with a big hit, catch or stolen base, does it feel like that was always going to happen—like it was predestined. Simpson isn't the Rays' superstar; that's Junior Caminero. He's more like a secret weapon. But a player who can cover so much ground in so short a time is awfully hard to avoid.

Simpson was the dominant force in Game 5 of the ALCS Sunday in Cleveland. He came up with two outs and two on in the top of the first inning, and he hit a slow bouncer over the mound. For most hitters, it's a bitterly disappointing and routine out, but for Simpson, it was a hit almost right away. Brayan Rocchio charged valiantly from shortstop and nearly made a dazzling play, but a very slight mishandling before he got off the throw cost him any hope of that. In truth, it would have taken an inch-perfect play to get Simpson, and when a fast player asks a tough question of a big-league defense, the strings of the game all pull taut, and it's harder than ever to be inch-perfect.

The next Rays batter, Jonny DeLuca, drew a bases-loaded walk to force home the Rays' first run. He gets the RBI; he did great work to lay off some close pitches up in the zone. Simpson created the run, though, because he was so fast that a routine ground ball became an infield single.

On the very first Cleveland at-bat of the game, Simpson asserted himself on defense, too. Chasing a twisting fly ball that sliced foul off the bat of Steven Kwan, he flagged the ball down and survived medium-strength contact with a parabolic microphone, the low wall and the net dividing fans from players. It wasn't the kind of play only a Gold Glover makes, but it takes both speed and toughness. The tone was firmly set.

Leading off the top of the third, Simpson changed the game in a way more familiar to fans of these playoffs, where power has been the main driver of scoring. He slashed a ball to the left of right fielder Chase DeLauter, and although DeLauter cut the ball off before it made the wall, Simpson had second easily, even before DeLauter clanked his first touch of the ball. The Guardians were just lucky DeLauter got there. Though Progressive Field is cozy and fielder-friendly in the corners and yields few triples down the line, if DeLauter is any less quick to stop the ball, Simpson gets third right there.

Instead, he took it just a couple of pitches later. His lead off second base was enormous, creating a sufficient distraction that when he took off, Patrick Bailey tried to be too quick in receiving the ball and switching to his throwing hand. Instead of any of that happening, he saw the pitch bounce off the tip of his mitt and go to the screen. Not longer after that, Simpson scored on a bloop single by Liam Hicks.

That tally was the Rays' third of the day, and the Guardians were still stuck on zero. For the rest of the night, Simpson participated mostly in his team's effort to keep it that way. Leading off the bottom of the sixth inning, Rocchio struck a low line drive toward left-center, but Simpson read it perfectly and instantly. He made the catch (a handful of steps to his left) look routine, which it was—but only because of his great reads and great speed in left. In the bottom of the seventh, Nathaniel Low lined a single toward the left-field corner, but Simpson was there long before it could skip to the corner, holding Lowe to a single. The double play, still in order, came to fruition two batters later, quelling any rally by the home team before it could begin.

Simspon's last notable action of the game is just a footnote, really, but file it away. After a leadoff single by Caminero, Simpson laid down a superb sacrifice bunt up the third-base line. It was so good, in fact, that it almost didn't go as a sacrifice, because only a perfect charge and bare-handed pick-and-throw by José Ramírez retired Simpson. Because he's so fast and wants so badly to put that speed to use, Simpson is a deft bunter. He collected 14 bunt hits in 2026. He can attack you with everything from the bunt to, as the Guardians have learned, harder line drives to the pull field than you expect.

Despite having one of the slowest swings in the league, Simpson is on time for fastballs more reliably than any other batter. He's applying his speed in all kinds of ways, from maximizing his range and minimizing his closing time in the field to accepting some ground balls as part of an approach that maximizes balls in play. With a nifty blend of self-awareness and talent, he's asserted himself throughout the ALCS. He's everywhere, so there's no avoiding him.