Yesterday, the Guardians punched their ticket to the ALCS with an emphatic 7-3 win over the Tigers that included a Lane Thomas Grand Slam off of likely AL Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal, allowing Cleveland to take the fifth and and final game of the series.
As the NLCS (the result of which you can vote on here) kicks off between the Dodgers and Mets today, the Guardians will be traveling to New York for Game 1 against the Yankees, which is scheduled for tomorrow night. The Yankees spent the early part of the weekend waiting to see who their opponent would be after dispatching the Royals in four games. The early finish to the series gave the club three days off to realign their rotation and rest their bullpen for the upcoming seven-game set, a welcome breather given the fact that the Orioles hung around the AL East race deep into September.
No one should be surprised the Yankees have made it this far. After all, just two years after Aaron Judge’s herculean 62-homer effort delivered the club to the postseason despite virtually no support from the rest of the lineup throughout the second half of the season in 2022, Judge delivered arguably an even more impressive season in 2024 that should earn him his second AL MVP trophy. Perhaps even more important than Judge’s dominant season, however, is the fact that this year he had help in the form of Juan Soto. The Yankees were aggressive in pursuing Soto when the Padres made him available last winter, and ultimately gave up a five-player package headlined by right-handers Michael King and Drew Thorpe to acquire another star who could complement Judge in the lineup. Soto delivered on that promise and then some, slashing a sensational .288/.419/.569 in 157 games amid the best season of the 25-year-old’s career.
While the Yankees were widely expected to make some noise this season after adding Soto, the Guardians entered the 2024 season as little more than an afterthought. The club went just 76-89 last year and made few major changes over the offseason besides hiring Stephen Vogt to take over in the dugout after longtime manager Terry Francona elected to depart the club amid health issues, and an early-season injury to Shane Bieber in his final year under club control appeared to many to be the final nail in the club’s coffin this year.
That’s not how things turned out, however, as the Guardians managed to ride strong production from Jose Ramirez and Steven Kwan in the lineup in conjunction with an otherworldly effort from the club’s bullpen to 92 wins, enough to dominate a resurgent and highly competitive AL Central division. While the entire Cleveland bullpen was extremely impressive, with a collective 2.57 ERA that was more than half a run better than the league’s second-best relief corps, closer Emmanuel Clase put together one of the most impressive seasons by a reliever in MLB history. Among all relief seasons with at least 50 innings of work since the start of the modern era in 1901, Clase’s ERA- of 15 ranks second to only Zack Britton’s dominant 2016 season. Even looking beyond Clase, however, the Cleveland bullpen has been something to behold this year as Eli Morgan, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, and youngster Cade Smith each joined Clase in posting sub-2.00 ERAs, though none were quite as dominant as their closer’s 0.61 figure.
The Guardians, without any notable players on the verge of returning from injury or suffering from known day-to-day issues that could take them out of discussion for the roster, aren’t facing much uncertainty regarding their roster as they prepare to submit their final roster decisions tomorrow. The same cannot be said for the Yankees, who plan to wait until Monday to finalize decisions not only on how many pitchers the club will carry into the ALCS but also on the status of first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who suffered two broken fingers in the final days of the regular season and was unavailable during the ALDS.
In the rotation, it seems fair to say the Yankees have a substantial advantage. While neither side has announced a probable starter for Game 1, the club has penciled veteran ace Gerrit Cole in to start Game 2 and with breakout rookie Luis Gil expected to take the ball later in the series, it seems likely that either lefty Carlos Rodon or righty Clarke Schmidt will be on the bump for New York in Game 1, with Marcus Stroman also available as a potential depth option for the rotation if necessary.
The Guardians, meanwhile, relied on the trio of Tanner Bibee, Matthew Boyd, and Alex Cobb to get them through the ALDS. Cobb will be the only one on full rest in time for Game 1, making him the club’s most likely option to start the game, but it’s worth noting that both he and Boyd combined for just 11 starts during the regular season and managed just 9 2/3 innings across their three starts during the ALDS. Dominant as the Guardians’ bullpen has been this postseason, it remains to be seen if the club can rely on their relievers to throw nearly 60% of the team’s innings in a seven-game series as they did during their five-game set against the Tigers.
How will the ALCS play out? Which team is headed to the World Series, and how competitive will this series be?
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Better bring extra midges this time 🙂
Midge Ure?
Probably NYY since Houston is at there to knock them out.
No garbage can lids
Rox
I’m going for the upset, Cleveland in 5! Haha
Upset? The main ingredient to winning in the post season is pitching.
Cleveland has more than New York. Plus Cleveland has lots of lefty bats for that short porch.
The Guardians have a stronger bullpen but the Yankees have the far superior rotation and lineup
You can’t deny the Yankees are favored to win, I do think it would be a cool thing to see both New York teams battle it out but you have to want the Indians to end the drought! They’re due!
Curious how many HRs Naylor and Ramirez would have in that “video game field” known as Yankee stadium?
You forgot the Yankees have a 0.00 Era against a good team.
Yankees the better Starting pitching and Relief also, remember that you guy’s used your whole bullpen and the didn’t even used Gil
Yankees in 6
Cleveland will be in such awe they’ll bring their autograph books out to watch the Yankees BP. They don’t even deserve to be on the same field. NYY in 4
Bro, you give Guards too much credit. Yanks in 1
Dude, you’re giving the Guardians too much credit. Yanks in -10.
Yankees in five.
“Yanks in 1” That sounds about right. Theeeeeeeeee Yankees Win! Ahahahaha!
The Yankees have owned the Guardians(Indians)in recent years. This will be a no drama Yankees series win. I’m very sad to say the Yankees in 5 games.
I’d say 6 games I think the Guardians put up a fight.
Probably headed for a New York-Los Angeles WS which should make the networks and the commissioner’s office absolutely giddy.
An all New York Subway series would be pretty dramatic as well. Then the Mets will become my new favorite team if they can silence the Yankees.
I’d be cool with a NY-NY series, but you know the league is dying to have Los Angeles in there.
Yankees fan act like chuldren. They are way too confident.
Anyone but the Yankees or Dodgers..
They are only confident bcs they aren’t playing Houston
Who are the Padres playing? Oh I need to check the 2025 schedule
Not really fair. I haven’t seen any Yankee fans trolling around. The rest of us can scoff all we want at them not having won the World Series in 15 years, but it’s been a minute for that franchise. They are almost a normal team with normal team problems.
Yankee fans haven’t thrown things on the field lately. Gotta give them that.
But why San Diego fan? Why? Oh yeah, I remember now.
Yankees could barely handle the Royals. At least this series goes 6 games. My guess is Indians take the series.
3-1 is barely handling? not
@Silas
You’d imagine they could score more than 3 runs? They struggled against the Royals in a series where the difference was only 1 or 2 runs. Indians have a much better pen than the Royals. Yankees will struggle against the Indians in this series.
Old York: I thought the same initially; but in fairness to the Yankees and the Royals, it’s easy to forget just how good the Royals pitching has been. In fact, from what I’ve read they have one of the best pitching rosters in the league, which surprised me.
Now, I’m certainly not dismissing the Guards because they are a well-constructed roster, with a few key players (Kwan, Ramirez, Naylor(s)) and a gem in Lane Thomas.
It’s going to be a battle, imho, and I picked the Yankees in 7, but that’s because I am admittedly biased.
Stick to soccer because when it comes to baseball you don’t know crap.
@yanks2009
Another troll showing off their true colors. I guess you haven’t watched baseball since 2009.
If the dumpires get every call correct, the Yankees have no chance. They’ve never won anything without help. That plus vitamins, cheating, and fans who throw things on the field. But hey, they’re great.
The right call was made.
October is the time to hang Indians Corn.
The Cleveland Not-Indians in 4, book it!
in 6
I want Cleveland to win. I have no desire to analyze any teams.
Buried lede: aside from the Mets coming in with the #6 seed, this postseason is a counterpoint to the mantra the top seeds are hurt by having the Wild Card round off.
I am guessing this format is here to stay. Allow any more teams in, and you make the regular season a complete joke.
Can they at least re-seed each round? It’s really stupid the #6 seed gets to avoid the #1 seed in round 2 if it advances.
Just have the lowest seed play the highest like football
@SweetBaby
Exactly.
Not what they do though. The 4 and 5 seeds are locked into playing the 1 if they advance; the 3 and 6 are locked into playing the 2. It’s dumb.
I have no problem with not re-seeding. The greatest tournament in sports (Men’s NCAA Basketball) doesn’t re-seed. And that’s all this is now is tournament baseball.
@Joe
Little bit easier logistically to pull of a re-seed with MLB than with March Madness.
But you’re right that this is now a gimmick.
If I’m being honest I hope between now and whenever this series is over that we see two ties in the NFL. It would mean the guardians would lose the world series in 7 games. Just a fun fact( unless you’re a guards fan I guess) 1997 the nfl season had two tie game finals loat to the Marlins in 7 games. 2016 there were two tie game finals. Indians/guards Lost the world series in 7 games
Rooting for Cleveland as the Central has put on quite the show this year. Detroit play very well taking 4 out of seven games, but Cleveland won the last game, so it’s congratulation to them. Go Indians !
The Tigers defense and even base running started to fall apart and they are too strike out prone.
Yankee haters out in full force, as usual on here. Frankly, I won’t be surprised if this comes down to game seven. I think we will all be reassured how important a dominant closer is. Because the Yankees certainly don’t have one. Weaver has been very good, but he’s also been a journeyman for reason. We shall see.
Have to root for the Indians, as the team not able to spend a billion dollars on payroll
6 games. Cue Frank Sinatra.
Managed to get tickets for game 2. I’ll be at Met Life Stadium tomorrow night for MNF (section 112, I’ll be wearing a Chrebet jersey with a Yankees hat).
Will do my best to stay out of trouble. 🙂
Wave to the skycam
Have a blast!
Dang…Yankees have Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. Guardians have good pitching. During the regular season, the Yankees were 4-2 against Cleveland, though Cleveland outscored them 22-19, thanks to one 9 run outburst by the Guardians in one game, and an 8 run outburst in another. The question in this series is whether the Guardians can consistently put together a good enough offense to beat New York. So who has the edge?
Manager: Guardians+5
Offense: Yankees+10
Starting Pitching: Guardians+1
Relief Pitching: Guardians+3
Defense: Guardians+2
Power: Yankees+10
Regular Season Line Edge: Yankees+2
Total:
Yankees:+22
Guardians:+11
2-1
4-2
And since the Yankees don’t have that much worse of a pitching staff, and the Guardians have a worse offense, I’d say the Yankees will win the series in 6 games. Good offense can beat good pitching, but good pitching typically beats a mediocre offense.
Yankees in 6. The Yankees bats will come to life as the series progresses further.
Subway series upcoming. Yanks in six, Mets in seven … then Mets in seven for the Series.
The Yankees will win as long as they stay away from using Holmes in key moments. Mets, unfortunately, are on a roll like Texas last year.
Will Jared be there
Yankee Yankee time for a spankee
Again, Mr. Deeds needs to learn basic syntactical rules. “Meanwhile” has to start the sentence; it can’t come in the middle, set off by commas.