The Guardians are headed to Yankee Stadium for playoff baseball once again.
Fresh off their Game 5 win over the Tigers on Saturday, the Guardians will be the Yankees’ next challenge in the ALCS that begins on Monday night in The Bronx.
The Yankees have seen plenty of the Guardians in October over the years — most recently in the 2022 ALDS — but this edition features the game’s best bullpen during the regular season, led by the game’s most dominant closer in Emmanuel Clase, with perennially underrated star third baseman Jose Ramirez anchoring their young lineup.
Cleveland Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase reacts after striking out Detroit Tigers’ Kerry Carpenter to end the eighth inning during Game 5. AP“Obviously Cleveland all year has been that frontrunner in the [AL] Central, put together a real consistent, solid year,” manager Aaron Boone said Saturday afternoon from a workout at Yankee Stadium. “They do it a lot of different ways. Obviously a tremendous bullpen, athletic, they defend really well, they’re pretty balanced in their attack.
“Obviously they got a couple guys that can really hurt you in the middle of the order and a superstar player in Ramirez.”
The Yankees will be in the ALCS for the second time in three years. Charles Wenzelberg / New York PostThe Yankees went 4-2 against the Guardians during the regular season, taking two of three at Progressive Field in April and again in The Bronx in August.
Now they will have to beat them four times in seven games to reach their first World Series since 2009.
As of Saturday afternoon, before the Guardians finished off a 7-3 win over the Tigers, the Yankees were still undecided on their Game 1 starter for Monday, though it will either be Carlos Rodon or Clarke Schmidt before Gerrit Cole comes back on normal rest for Game 2 on Tuesday.
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Games 3-5 will be at Progressive Field — land of the midges in past Octobers — on Thursday through Saturday before the series would return to Yankee Stadium for Games 6 and 7, if needed, next Monday and Tuesday.
“We’re playing a very, very good Yankee team,” first-year manager Stephen Vogt said Saturday after winning the ALDS. “We’ve seen them in the regular season. This is one of the most talented teams in the league. So we know we have our work cut out for us. We’re going to enjoy tonight, and when we wake up [Sunday], it’s go time.”
Jose Ramirez is a superstar for the Guardians. David Richard-Imagn ImagesIn the ALDS, the Guardians used Tanner Bibee (who would not be available to start on normal rest until Game 2 of the ALCS), Alex Cobb (who would be on regular rest to start Game 1) and Matthew Boyd.
Their options for a fourth starter in the ALCS include lefty Joey Cantillo and righty Gavin Williams.
But the strength of the Guardians pitching staff is their bullpen, which posted a 2.57 ERA during the regular season — more than a half-run better than the second-place team (Brewers, 3.11).
Clase put together one of the best years ever for a reliever, allowing just five earned runs across 74 ¹/₃ innings (0.61 ERA) with a minuscule 0.659 WHIP.
The Yankees, however, were responsible for one of the earned runs against Clase — and one of the three blown saves in 50 attempts — when Anthony Volpe hit a two-out, game-tying double against him in the ninth inning during their April series.
In the ALDS, the Guardians bullpen threw 25 ²/₃ innings while giving up nine runs (3.16 ERA), four of them by Clase.
Cade Smith has been a weapon out of the bullpen for Cleveland. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters ConRookie righty Cade Smith is also a weapon from the right side, throwing 6 ¹/₃ innings in the series while allowing just one run and two hits and striking out 12.
Ramirez, who stands as the biggest threat in the Guardians lineup with power and speed, has had Cole’s number in the past, batting 9-for-23 with a 1.283 against him.
In the 2022 ALDS — which the Yankees needed five games to win — Ramirez hit 8-for-20 with a .909 OPS.
Boone, meanwhile, credited the former catcher Vogt for the work he did after taking over for future Hall of Famer Terry Francona.
“Coming in for the first time, fresh off a playing field, it just seems like he’s got a really good heartbeat and I think he’s done a great job,” Boone said. “They’ve had — not doing it the way Detroit’s doing it necessarily, but done it a lot with the bullpen-centric theme and also playing a lot of platoon advantages in different situations.
“I think he’s done a really nice job with that.”
