CHICAGO (Interstat) — The Cleveland Guardians will visit the Chicago White Sox on Thursday at Guaranteed Rate Field for Game 4 of their playoff series. Cleveland is the visiting team. Chicago is the home team. The Guardians enter at 86-79. The White Sox are 88-79. Chicago leads the series 2-1 after Cleveland won the most recent meeting 9-3. Chicago won the first two games of the series by scores of 3-0 and 4-3 before Cleveland’s 9-3 victory.

Cleveland lists Parker Messick as its probable pitcher. Messick has a 12-10 record this season. Chicago lists Hagen Smith as its probable pitcher. Smith is 3-3. The game-time forecast is 73 degrees.

José Ramírez is a player to watch for Cleveland. In the Guardians’ latest win against Chicago, he went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. He also had two hits and two RBIs against Kansas City in a Cleveland win and two hits in another game against the Royals. Ramírez had two hits in two other recent games against Boston and Oakland. He went 1 for 4 with two RBIs at Kansas City and 2 for 4 at Boston in a 1-0 win.

Sean Newcomb is a player to watch for Chicago. In the White Sox’s most recent game against Cleveland, he pitched two innings, allowed one hit and no earned runs with one strikeout. Earlier in the series, he worked two innings, allowed one hit and no earned runs with one walk and three strikeouts. Newcomb also had scoreless relief appearances against Houston, Colorado and Kansas City in recent outings. He pitched 1 1/3 innings with one hit and one earned run with four strikeouts at St. Louis.

Cleveland’s most recent result was a 9-3 win at Chicago. Along with Ramírez, Cade Smith pitched two innings with no hits, no earned runs and five strikeouts. Foster Griffin worked 2 2/3 innings, allowed two hits and one earned run with seven strikeouts. For Chicago in that game, Newcomb, Noah Schultz and Tyler Davis combined for six innings with one earned run allowed. Schultz pitched three innings with two hits, one earned run, two walks and one strikeout. Davis pitched one inning with one hit, no earned runs, one walk and one strikeout.

In the teams’ 10 most recent meetings, Chicago has won six and Cleveland four. Cleveland has recent wins over Kansas City, Boston and Oakland. Chicago has recent wins over Houston and Colorado. The series is scheduled to continue with Chicago at Cleveland.

Interstat’s game simulator projects Cleveland to win 8-7. Interstat’s ELO system gives Chicago a 51.4 percent probability to win. Cleveland has been installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of -1.5. The over/under is 7.5.