The ALCS isn’t over. But the Guardians tried everything to even it up — and still came up short

NEW YORK — If it feels like this American League Championship Series might already be over, well, that’s unfair to both the Cleveland Guardians and to history. But the Guardians and their manager, Stephen Vogt, approached the second game on Tuesday with the urgency and aggressiveness worthy of the stage — and still looked unfit to share it with the New York Yankees, who took a 6-3 victory and a two-games-to-none series lead.

Make no mistake: the Guardians deserve to be here. They won 92 games this season, just two fewer than the Yankees and part of a vastly underappreciated stretch of success. Did you know that in the last dozen seasons, only the Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers have more victories than Cleveland? And those teams, you may have heard, spend a bit more money.

But if the Guardians can’t win a game like this, they must be asking themselves, deep down, when they will ever break through.

Consider:

— They got on base in nine of their last 15 plate appearances against the Yankees’ ace, Gerrit Cole. The barrage of singles and walks chased Cole in the fifth inning, but produced just two runs.

— The Yankees stumbled into two outs on the bases in the sixth — “That’s what they do,” John Sterling noted on radio, “run the bases like drunks!” — yet still scored a run on a bobble by Guardians right fielder Will Brennan. It was the second Cleveland error, after shortstop Brayan Rocchio fumbled a pop up to score a run in the first.

— The Guardians used their best starter, Tanner Bibee, and all of their best relievers had two days of rest. But the Yankees managed six runs while rapping 11 hits, five for extra bases, and Cleveland still hasn’t found a lead for its star closer, Emmanuel Clase, to protect.

— José Ramírez, the Guardians’ centerpiece third baseman, lashed a homer to pierce the Yankees’ suddenly untouchable closer, Luke Weaver. But it was poor timing for Ramírez’s first hit of the series; he’d previously left five runners on base.

José Ramírez blasts a solo shot in the 9th #ALCS pic.twitter.com/PHtk76QPUT

— MLB (@MLB) October 16, 2024

“We didn’t play Cleveland baseball today,” left fielder Steven Kwan said. “We had a couple of errors. We obviously pride ourselves on our defense. So if we want to win some games, we’re gonna have to play Guard Ball.”

By that, Kwan said, he meant “fundamental baseball: make the plays that we’re supposed to, hit with runners in scoring position, get the guy over. Just fundamental stuff to be able to play the game.”

It’s lazy to say that the moment looked too big for the Guardians, who have baseball’s youngest roster for the fourth year in a row, according to general manager Mike Chernoff. This is a team that lost its ace, Shane Bieber, to injury after two starts; lost its division lead in August and rallied to finish 17-10; and lost two of its first three playoff games to Detroit but recovered with two stirring comebacks.

“I feel like all year we’ve kind of really done this,” Bibee said. “I feel like at the beginning of the year, in a lot of people’s eyes, we weren’t supposed to be here. But we’ve always known that we were supposed to be here. And we still think that. So that doesn’t change just because we’re down two games. There’s a reason it’s a seven-game series.”

It is, but credit Vogt — a rookie manager — for approaching Tuesday with a must-win mentality. He went to his limited bench in the second inning of Game 3 in Detroit, and it didn’t work then. But that didn’t stop Vogt from gambling again this time, using David Fry to hit for Bo Naylor with the bases loaded in the fourth.

Fry popped out on the first pitch, and because an elbow injury keeps Fry from catching, Austin Hedges had to replace Naylor. Naturally, when the Guardians loaded the bases again in the fifth, it was Hedges — a defensive stalwart but historically poor hitter — who struck out to end the inning.

“It was the highest leverage moment of the game, bases loaded, one out,” Vogt said, explaining the decision to use Fry in the fourth. “We want to take a shot with David. Gerrit Cole, really good pitcher, made a good pitch on David and got the pop up. Austin’s been a big part of our team. We wanted to take our shot right there. We felt that was our biggest opportunity at that point. You don’t know when you’re going to get three guys on against somebody like Gerrit Cole.

“It’s who we are. We take chances when we do. It’s just unfortunate we were not able to come through with a big hit.”

That’s postseason baseball: be who you are, but bolder. It’s the same reason that Vogt intentionally walked Juan Soto to load the bases for Aaron Judge with one out in the second inning — then took out Bibee after 11 batters, the fewest he’s ever faced in his 59 career starts.

The Guardians have the majors’ best bullpen — and you cannot lose without deploying your greatest strength. So Cade Smith took over for Bibee, held Judge to a sacrifice fly and retired all five hitters he faced.

“We haven’t gone to the ‘pen as early as we did tonight, but the stakes being higher, basically at that point we’re trying to stop the game and stop their momentum,” pitching coach Carl Willis said. “You can’t let the game get away from you. You just can’t. Because if you do, there’s no need for Cade later. And while you may flip the script and all of a sudden you’re like, ‘Oh hell, we used Cade in the fourth’ — but still, we have trust in the other guys, and you have to get to that point. You can’t just bank on getting there.”

Vogt’s predecessor in Cleveland, Terry Francona, has a philosophy about managerial moves: “If I can’t explain this,” he has said, “it’s wrong.” In other words, if a manager has an option that gives the team a better chance to win, there’s really no choice. Take it.

The Fry move backfired. The Soto and Smith moves basically worked. In any case, the Guardians won’t win this series by being passive. Vogt understands that.

And as bleak as things seem for Cleveland, it’s looked this hopeless for other teams, too. Just last October, the Philadelphia Phillies easily won the first two games of the NLCS at home against the sixth-seeded Arizona Diamondbacks. But when the series shifted to Arizona, the Diamondbacks adjusted their pitching strategy, quickly evened the series and won it in seven.

Willis, a reliever for the 1991 Minnesota Twins, has been there, too. In that year’s classic World Series, the Twins took the first two at home but then lost all three in Atlanta before recovering to take the crown.

“We’re going home, and we have one of the best records in the major leagues at home,” Willis said. “It can turn on a dime, and they know that, too.”

It can — and for the Guardians, it must.

(Top photo of Tanner Bibee exiting Game 2 of the ALCS: Dustin Satloff/MLB Photos via Getty Images)