Thoughts after Game 2 of the 2024 ALCS

The Guardians out-sloppied the Yankees in Game 2 and the good guys will take a 2-0 series lead to Cleveland when the ALCS resumes Thursday. The Yankees are two wins away from their first pennant since 2009, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Cleveland is a very good team despite what we watched the last two nights, and every win is harder than the last. Six games into the postseason, the Yankees are 5-1.

Game 3 on Thursday: RHP Clarke Schmidt vs. TBA (5pm ET on TBS)

1. Judge awakens (I hope). You know what, I totally understand the Guardians intentionally walking Juan Soto to load the bases for Aaron Judge in the second inning, and it has nothing to do with Judge taking a .133/.364/.200 (84 wRC+) postseason slash line into Game 2. Cleveland was already down 2-0 and had to stop the bleeding right there, and they had three options:

• Pitch to Soto and Judge, two of the best hitters in the world.

• Walk Soto, then pitch to Judge and Austin Wells, who’s been an automatic out in October.

• Pitch to Soto, walk Judge, then pitch to Wells.

The first option is an easy no, right? The Guardians were up against it, and if you can take the bat out of the hands of an elite hitter, you do it. Put Soto on and you’ve given yourself a chance at an inning-ending double play or a force out at home. The walk shrinks the pitcher’s margin of error, for sure, but it does open up a few opportunities to keep the game close. At that point, you've got to take risks and do something unconventional.

“They were hitting the ball around the ballpark, and we needed to stop the game,” Stephen Vogt said. “In that situation you want to try to get a double play ball. You want to try to get two outs with one pitch. You want to try to find a way to get out of that inning, and Cade (Smith) did a great job doing that.”

"It happened earlier in the year, so not really surprised," Judge said, referring to the White Sox intentionally walking Soto on Aug. 14th (which Judge followed with his 300th homer).

Judge followed the intentional walk with a sacrifice fly to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. We’re still waiting for that big hit to really bust a game open – the Yankees are 21-for-101 (.208) with men on base through six postseason games – but there have been enough sac flies and wild pitches and solo homers to win games. Keep creating chances and the big hit will come. Right? It better.

Anyway, the Guardians challenged the likely AL MVP by intentionally walking Soto, and Judge put a run on the board. Later in the game, Judge finally did a Judge thing, and put a ball in the seats. Or off the wall in Monument Park, really. It wasn’t an awful pitch either. Hunter Gaddis threw a fastball up but couldn't get the cheese past the rat (video).

Judge has fouled away a lot of hittable pitches this postseason and also checked a lot of swings, which is a telltale sign he’s a bit jumpy at the plate. This isn’t a Wells situation where he’s getting blown away by fastballs and the at-bats are not competitive. Judge is missing pitches he should hammer, not flailing away. He’s dangerous in the box. It just didn’t show until Game 2. Let's hope Judge goes nuclear now that the home run monkey is off his back.

“Always a matter of time with Aaron,” Aaron Boone said. 

2. If they’re going to give you free runs, take them. All season long I was worried about the Yankees making dopey mistakes at inopportune times in the postseason, and they have (see: baserunning in the sixth inning), but the Guardians are outdoing them. Seven walks, four wild pitches, and three gift runs in Game 1. In Game 2, Brayan Rocchio dropped an infield pop up to score a run (video) in the first inning.

"I think it was what it was," Stephen Vogt said about Rocchio's error. "… That ball was up in the air for quite a while with the wind, tough play. Those things happen.

Gleyber Torres has reached base to start five of six games this postseason and four times in six games the Yankees had two on with no outs in the first inning. Game 2 was the first time they actually brought a run home in that situation. It took a dropped pop up and you can’t rely on those forever (or ever), but in the postseason, you take what you can get, and the Guardians are giving the Yankees an awful lot.

Later in the game Will Brennan bobbled Anthony Rizzo’s double that ricocheted off the side wall, allowing Anthony Volpe to score from first. Volpe initially held up at third! Without the bobble, he might’ve been stranded considering the Yankees ran into two outs that inning. How often does the runner at third do this and things still work out okay?

The bottom of the order was terrific in Game 2. The 7-8-9 spots – Volpe, Rizzo, Alex Verdugo – went 5-for-10 with two doubles and two walks. Verdugo doubled in a run and set up the Juan Soto intentional walk. Rizzo doubled in an insurance run late thanks to Brennan’s bobble. Torres and Soto have been so good atop the lineup. The bottom did major damage in Game 2.

“Our bottom of the order could be the top of our order,” Rizzo said. “Our top of the order is so potent and so good. We know our role down at the bottom. We just want to get it to the next guy, get it to the next guy, and that's been our mentality. How close we are as a team, I think it really shows because all we're trying to do is just get it to the next guy.”

The Yankees are playing well and the Guardians are also beating themselves. They opened the door with walks and wild pitches in Game 1, and they did it again in Game 2 with Rocchio’s pop up and Brennan’s bobble. They’re a really good team and you can’t expect them to keep kicking the ball around, but they did in Games 1 and 2, and the Yankees won. Hooray for capitalizing on mistakes.

3. Cole’s stinker. Even in the early innings, Gerrit Cole was not sharp in Game 2. He fell behind a lot of hitters even while keeping runs off the board. Ultimately though, the offense staked him to a 3-0 lead after two innings, and Cole couldn’t get through five. That’s really bad and a weak outing by the ace. The game was more interesting than it needed to be because Cole was not good.

“I lost a little bit of the zone. A few too many walks again,” Cole said. “… Just got to do better. Got to do better.”

Cole threw a first pitch to strike to 11 of 23 batters and nine of the final 15 batters he faced reached base. There were some soft hits in there, that’s what the Guardians do, but Cole walked four, and threw 12 balls among 19 pitches in that two-run fifth inning. The last batter he faced, Lane Thomas, worked a seven-pitch walk, and these locations aren’t all that competitive:

Clay Holmes got the Yankees out of the fifth inning with the lead – I thought he should have been in to face Thomas rather than coming in to face two lefties (Will Brennan and Andrés Giménez) – then Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle took it from there. Hill retired all five batters he faced on 18 pitches. Also, he threw a slider (two, in fact) for the first time since Aug. 24th. Broke a string of 172 consecutive fastballs. How about that?

Cole was not good, the offense and bullpen were better, and the Yankees escaped with a win. One great start and two not-so-good starts for Cole this October. It goes without saying the Yankees will need more of ALDS Game 4 Cole and less of ALDS Game 1 and ALCS Game 2 Cole moving forward. At least there’s an off-day Wednesday to rest the bullpen (Holmes and Luke Weaver especially).

4. Rapid fire thoughts. Luke Weaver as the closer is now “has a cool entrance with a light show” official. That was new for Game 2. (I think? It has to be new. I would've seen it in Game 1.) I thought Aaron Boone might stay away from Weaver with a four-run lead in the ninth, but I get going to your best in the postseason, especially against the middle of the order. Weaver and Clay Holmes pitching in every game is not a thing that can continue though. Someone else (Ian Hamilton, probably) will have to get important outs at some point in Cleveland … Three hits for Gleyber Torres, including a double. He’s up to .292/.433/.500 (170 wRC+) this postseason. He’s been excellent for more than two months now. The epitome of a “it’s now how you start, it’s how you finish” season for Gleyber … Two hits for Anthony Rizzo, who kinda sorta admitted he's surprised he's doing as well as he is with broken fingers. The Yankees got some of the worst first base production in franchise history during the regular season. Now whoever they put there in the postseason performs. Stupid sport, this is … The Guardians took a shot and pinch-hit David Fry for Bo Naylor with the bases loaded in the fourth. It was a good, aggressive move that didn’t work out (Fry popped up the first pitch). It also meant Austin Hedges, owner of a .153/.203/.220 (20 wRC+) line in 2024, had to take over behind the plate, and he came up with two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth. Holmes struck him out to end the threat and preserve a 3-2 lead. Everything is coming up Yankees … The Guardians took Alex Cobb off their roster with a back issue. By rule, he has to miss the next round, so his season is over even if Cleveland advances. Righty Ben Lively replaced Cobb. He could get a start later in the series, I suppose, though Lively threw 1.1 innings and 26 pitches late in Game 2 … And finally, the Game 2 win guaranteed there will be another game at Yankee Stadium this year. It could be ALCS Game 6, it could be World Series Game 1, it could be World Series Game 3. We don’t know yet. We just know more baseball will be played in the Bronx in 2024.