[Serious] Next Day Thread ⚾ Guardians 3 @ Yankees 6 – Cole survives walking the highwire, and Judge goes deep, as the Yankees take a 2-0 series lead to Cleveland

13 comments

1. This game felt over the moment Austin Hedges stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two out

2. AL’s best road team vs AL’s best home team should make this series even more interesting than it has been so far.

3. Long way to go in this series but early on it seems like the Yankees advantage in offense and starting pitching might be too much for the Indians and their fantastic bullpen to overcome. Especially considering the Yankees bullpen has been lights out so far this postseason.

4. Yankees fans so confident in their team, while disregarding the fact that this is the easiest the AL has been in a long time.

5. Seems like Guards fans are generally unhappy with Vogt so far? Feels like he’s been aggressive and has done the best he can to push the right buttons.

6. You can’t let Cole off the hook when he’s having a bad start. I think the Yankees are going to sweep this thing, Cleveland has played these last two games so poorly I think they are just cooked.

7. Well I suppose this is why we have these 7 game sets.

   It might be looking quite grim, but it’s nice the Guardians still have a non-zero chance to bounce back even after having the jitters at Yankee Stadium.

   And at any rate I feel like everyone knew going in that if the guardians are going to win it was going to almost have to be in 7.

8. Who’s the probable starter for the guardians in game 3?

9. This is an awful run with Stanton being the only one really hitting until last night. It’s also not like they’ve faced a ton of good offenses so far. I can not think of a team in the last 25 seasons that will have an easier run to the WS.

   18 Red Sox had to get through 100 win Yankees, 103 win Astros. 13 Red Sox had Miggy, Prince Fielder, Verlander, and Scherzer Tigers. 07 Red Sox had a great Indians team with CC, Sizemore, and Victor Martinez. 04 has the greatest ALCS ever played. Even the Giants runs on the NL side had Phillies, Dodgers, Cardinals, and Nationals in a DS or CS. Everyone else in the last 25 years has faced a great team before reaching the World Series.

   Royals arrived a year early and had no lineup depth. Guardians have no big game pitcher. They are teams designed for the regular season. Rangers had Eovaldi and Montgomery last year and Arizona had Gallen, Kelly, and Pfaadt. It really doesn’t take much. Alex Cobb was the bare minimum and that’s what to expect from a penny pinching organization.

   I know you see my flair and will downvote me. I hope our front office feels bad about themselves for not taking the extra step because we would have bulldozed our way through October if guys stayed healthy and a little more bullpen and pitching investing. This is the worst I have seen the American league and what happens when there isn’t an Astros or Red Sox team to ask questions about the Yankees poor roster construction.

   To the 10 AL teams that aren’t the Angels, Athletics, and White Sox who legitimately had a chance, we have to feel a little bit of shame for this display. This is what happens when no one is there to question the Yankees.

10. The guardians have looked thoroughly outmatched against the Yankees this series. If the sloppy play in the field continues this series is already over.

    That being said, Bo Naylor is starting because he is a better bat than Hedges. If you’re only going to let him take one AB and then have hedges take 2 ABs, including a bases loaded AB later in the game, just don’t start Naylor. You had to burn 2 bench guys in the 4th because of this

    And to pinch hit Fry, despite his homer off Beau Brieske, has a lower career OPS vs. righties than Naylor.

11. Yanks scoring 11 runs over the first 2 games while going 2-17 with RISP gives me hope that there are more runs to come

12. Cleveland is not a World Series constructed roster. Just too many holes. Bo Naylor/Hedges are absolute liabilities. NL traditionalists, you’ll be delighted to know they brought back the pitcher hitting in this series.

    For Cleveland to have NO starting pitching and to still have the outfield holes they always do, is inexcusable. The great thing about team ownership is that no one is forcing you to own a team. MLB NEEDS a salary floor, plain and simple. As for the “Cleveland’s roster is young” argument, they’re always going to be fucking young. Because any time a player reaches arbitration, the FO prepares the UPS labels to ship them off. Makes me sick how many Cleveland fans hand wave this all away. If you need to qualify your postseason success with caveats, it’s irrelevant.

    On the bright side, Vogt looks legit and this core has some great chemistry. 2024’s #1 overall pick and hopefully some other major contributors will be rising through the farm system within a couple seasons. As for this series, I think it’s a tall task for Cleveland to take 4 of 5. I’ll have low expectations for game 3, it all starts there. they absolutely need to have a SP go longer than 4 (or even 3) innings. Clase has been rendered irrelevant so far this series which has negated possibly CLE’s only advantage on paper. 3 or 4 guys have been contributing on offense, everyone else needs to step up or at the very least have productive ABs moving forward.

    I’ll be generous and say Yanks in 5 at this point. CLE has been good at home, and even though Game 1 and Game 2 felt like blowouts despite what the scores would indicate, I’d be shocked if the tribe don’t take at least 1 of game 3 or game 4. For Cleveland to win the series, I don’t see them winning 2 on the road – they’ll need to sweep their home games.

13. Vogt is making too many rookie manager mistakes. He was lucky Smith only gave up the sac fly after taking out Bibee. However, Vogt is still mismanaging the bullpen and overusing his bench way too early especially when catching is bad on offense.