CLEVELAND (AP) — Will Venable said before the start of the American League Division Series that it was possible the Chicago White Sox could use bullpen games during the first three contests against the Cleveland Guardians.
Venable isn't deviating from that plan, so far.
Anthony Kay will be the opener for Game 2 on Monday at Progressive Field. It will be the 33rd time this season the White Sox have used an opener, including the third in the postseason.
Sean Burke is expected to throw most of the innings, but Venable said he will have many options available.
“The way it’s set up here with the two off days in between these first three games gives us a chance to go ahead,” Venable said.
Kay made 33 appearances during the regular season, including 31 starts, and went 10-9 with a 4.44 ERA. He was the first White Sox left hander to earn double-digit wins in a season since Carlos Rodón with 13 in 2021. Kay got the win on Wednesday in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series with two-thirds of a scoreless inning.
Kay was also among five Chicago pitchers in Saturday's 3-0 victory as they allowed only three hits and struck out 12.. He went 1 1/3 innings and allowed one hit and one walk.
“It’s been interesting watching him in a different type of role, shorten down. You’ve seen the velo tick up. I think the one thing is he just hasn’t been afforded kind of that length to get comfortable,” Venable said. “He’s made some really big pitches, got us out of some really tough spots. We just haven’t really seen us go beyond that.”
Chicago's bullpen has a 4.57 ERA with its openers, but Hagen Smith has not allowed an earned run in 5 2/3 innings in the postseason. The left-hander worked three scoreless innings in Game 1 of the first round against Houston and then 2 2/3 shutout innings on Saturday against the Guardians.
Burke got the start on Wednesday in Houston. The right-hander, who went 11-7 with a 3.34 ERA in the regular season, allowed three runs on four hits and struck out eight in four innings.
“I think just seeing the efforts and everybody kind of doing their own individual role just makes you want to take the ball and just do anything you can to kind of help the team just put up zeros, and passing that baton to the next guy,” Burke said. “And the way we’re doing this is really just like a team effort from the pitching side.”
Gavin Williams will get the call for Cleveland. The right-hander went 14-8 with a 3.76 ERA and was second in the major leagues with 248 strikeouts. He held opposing hitters to a .213 batting average, tied for seventh best in the majors.
Williams isn't stressing about the start despite the Guardians needing a win to avoid an 0-2 deficit going to Chicago.
“It’s just another game. Just going to go out there and try and do what I know I can do and execute and try to help the team win,” he said.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Anthony Kay follows through on a pitch against the Cleveland Guardians during the fifth inning in Game 1 of baseball's American League Division Series, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tim Phillis)
Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable smiles while taking questions in a postgame news conference after a win over the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of baseball's American League Division Series, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tim Phillis)
Yemen's internationally recognized government has announced a major military operation against the Iran -backed Houthi rebels as they advance in the outskirts of a key city.
Meanwhile, the Iranian parliament speaker who was the lead negotiator in direct talks with the U.S. earlier this year says Washington recently put forward proposals via a mediator, without details. And Israeli strikes have killed at least two people in Gaza.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Sunday. Full coverage is available here.
Rashad al-Alimi, head of the ruling Presidential Leadership Council, made the declaration as the Iran-backed rebels advanced in the outskirts of a key southwestern city, Taiz.
Speaking from Saudi Arabia, he said the operation aims at “recovering the remaining territories” controlled by the Houthis, who made their largest land grab in recent years last month when they seized Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Al-Alimi called for the international community to provide support to his Saudi-backed government.
The Houthis have launched a major offensive in recent days against government forces and their allies on the outskirts of Taiz, disrupting a major road linking the city to the port city of Aden, the seat of al-Alimi’s government. The rebels have besieged Taiz for more than a decade.
Earlier, the Houthis said airstrikes hit the capital, Sanaa, overnight, without giving details. The Yemeni military, backed by Riyadh, claimed responsibility, saying it struck “vital targets” in Sanaa as well as the northern province of Saada on the border with Saudi Arabia.
The escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has revived Yemen’s civil war after a four-year ceasefire.
The United States recently put forward proposals through a mediator, Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, told an open session of Parliament, without details.
U.S. President Donald Trump last week said he rejected Iran’s latest peace offer because it’s not good enough. Qalibaf, the lead negotiator in rare direct talks with the U.S. earlier this year, said Americans “say something different in the media.”
Qalibaf said “the era of dragging out time and dictating unilateral demands is over” and that Iran's seven conditions for fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz remain.
Separately, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told ambassadors and chargés d’affaires of foreign missions in Tehran that “if they seek diplomatic avenues, we remain ready to reach a fair and honorable solution through diplomacy to end this war." But he warned that any renewed military confrontation would bring a stronger response.
Araghchi also rejected a U.S. claim that the Iranian delegation had been expelled from the U.S. days after the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, where Iran proposed a deal to the U.S. that was turned down. He said Iran had returned according to a previously arranged schedule.
Iran’s oil minister resigned and President Masoud Pezeshkian accepted his resignation, state television reported. Pezeshkian appointed Hamid Bovard as caretaker oil minister following the resignation of Mohsen Paknejad.
The reason for the resignation was not immediately clear. It came as Iran’s oil exports face intense pressure from tightened U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade.
Iran’s ability to export oil is a crucial source of government revenue. Tehran has demanded that Washington lift sanctions on its oil sales and end the blockade as part of negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
An Israeli strike on a civilian vehicle killed one Palestinian and wounded at least 11 others, according to health officials at the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Israel’s military said it targeted a known Hamas militant.
Later, a Turkish aid agency, the Deniz Feneri Association, said one of its volunteers was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza. Israel's military said it “eliminated” a Hamas militant whom it described as the aid group's director.
Palestinians in Gaza have reported a surge in Israeli fire and airstrikes across the enclave over the past month. Israel says it is targeting Hamas and other militants who pose a threat, and in response to ceasefire violations, including occasional attacks.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,445 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire was reached with the Hamas militant group nearly a year ago, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Its figures are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It doesn’t give a breakdown of civilians and militants. Seven Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire.
A projectile struck a tanker on the Strait of Hormuz, damaging the engine room, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said.
It was not immediately clear who launched the attack or when it was carried out. The UKMTO said the crew was reportedly safe.
The monitor in a separate report said three tankers were struck on Saturday while transiting the strait, noting that attacks on the Omani side of the strait continue. That's where the U.S. military has been guiding vessels.
Overall ship traffic on the strait has improved but remains below prewar levels, as do shipments of energy products, even though Iran has lost its near-complete grip on the crucial waterway due to the U.S. Navy’s efforts. That, along with various pipelines, has allowed Gulf countries to restore oil exports to nearly prewar levels.
The Houthi military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, said the rebels fired missiles and drones at Saudi oil facilities.
In a prerecorded statement, Saree claimed to have targeted facilities of the Saudi state-run Aramco oil company, in the capital, Riyadh, and the Kurais area, which hosts a massive facility 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Riyadh.
He didn’t say when it occurred, provide further details or offer evidence supporting his claim. A fire broke out at an Aramco oil refinery on Saturday, with no details released on the cause.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
A man walks inside a damaged sponge factory in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
A man walks inside a damaged sponge factory in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians Maisaa Abu Dawood and her daughter Mary, who were killed in an early morning Israeli airstrike, during their funeral at the Church of St. Porphyrius in Gaza City, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A gull flies overhead as a boy stands with his bicycle on a beach overlooking commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
