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?
dixoncayne
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
CravenMoorehead
Better bring extra midges this time 🙂
steven st croix
Probably NYY since Houston is at there to knock them out.
Silas
No garbage can lids
Very Barry
Cleveland!!!!!
Balk
I’m going for the upset, Cleveland in 5! Haha
stymeedone
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.
Ronk325
The Guardians have a stronger bullpen but the Yankees have the far superior rotation and lineup
TerryTurnbuckle
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
3768902
Bro, you give Guards too much credit. Yanks in 1
WiffleBall
Dude, you’re giving the Guardians too much credit. Yanks in -10.
Very Barry
Cleveland is in a great spot against the Yankees. Yankee pitching is no longer elite. Cleveland is a very disciplined group that ain’t gonna beat themselves. Cleveland has the better pitching. If the Yankees can’t keep Kwan off base ….. Well ……
LordD99
Yankees in five.
NYCityRiddler
“Yanks in 1” That sounds about right. Theeeeeeeeee Yankees Win! Ahahahaha!
mlb fan
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.
letitbelowenstein
Probably headed for a New York-Los Angeles WS which should make the networks and the commissioner’s office absolutely giddy.
mlb fan
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.
letitbelowenstein
I’d be cool with a NY-NY series, but you know the league is dying to have Los Angeles in there.
VegasSDfan
Yankees fan act like chuldren. They are way too confident.
Anyone but the Yankees or Dodgers..
steven st croix
They are only confident bcs they aren’t playing Houston
Silas
Who are the Padres playing? Oh I need to check the 2025 schedule
Informed Sportsball Discussion
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.
Old York
Yankees could barely handle the Royals. At least this series goes 6 games. My guess is Indians take the series.
Silas
3-1 is barely handling? not
Old York
@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.
whyhayzee
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.
Silas
October is the time to hang Indians Corn.
King Floch
The Cleveland Not-Indians in 4, book it!
SweetBabyRayKingsThickThighs
in 6
GarryHarris
I want Cleveland to win. I have no desire to analyze any teams.
Informed Sportsball Discussion
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.
SweetBabyRayKingsThickThighs
Just have the lowest seed play the highest like football
Informed Sportsball Discussion
@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.
Joe says...
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.
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
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
MPrck
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 !