All the intriguing storylines for LCS doubleheader action today

It seems like the League Championship Series round has just gotten going, but already we have two teams feeling some serious heat.

Both the ALCS and NLCS are in action on Thursday, and by the end of the night, the Guardians and Mets both could be one loss away from seeing their seasons end. Will they falter and find themselves on the brink of elimination or, playing in their home ballparks, fight back and tighten up these series?

Here are the biggest storylines heading into Thursday’s pair of LCS games.

ALCS Game 3: Yankees at Guardians (NYY up 2-0)
5:08 p.m. ET, TBS
SP: Clarke Schmidt (NYY) vs. Matthew Boyd (CLE)

Yankees: Is Aaron Judge about to go off?
If this Yankees postseason run has proven anything so far, it’s that they don’t necessarily need Judge to be the monster he was during the regular season. Their pitching has done enough, Giancarlo Stanton has done a reasonable Judge impersonation and, oh yeah, they also have Juan Soto. That recipe has helped them win five of six games against a pair of AL Central foes.

• Yankees-Guardians ALCS Game 3 FAQ

But certainly it would be easier for the Yankees to stomp to their first World Series since 2009 if they were getting the Judge we saw all year. Which is why his seventh-inning homer in Game 2 got so much attention … and felt like such a breakthrough. Judge has always been a little bit streaky as a hitter -- particularly in the last quarter of the season -- which is to say, he goes through mini slumps sometimes, but when he locks into gear, he can win games by himself. Judge’s homer felt like the pivot toward Judge being that Judge. And if he is … how, exactly, are you supposed to beat these Yankees?

Guardians: Can they ever get a lead to the bullpen?
It’s been a struggle for the Guardians’ offense in this series, and really all postseason, exacerbated by José Ramírez’s slow start (though, like Judge, he can hope a late homer in Game 2 will get him going). Considering Cleveland’s lineup limitations, their path to victory in this series has always been a narrow one. But it was also a clear one: Get an early lead, then let the bullpen quartet of Cade Smith, Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis and (especially) Emmanuel Clase hold onto it and, ultimately, take you home. The Guardians haven’t been able to deploy that plan, as solid as it is, because they haven’t had a lead yet in this series -- not one. They trailed 4-0 after the fourth inning of Game 1 and 3-0 after the second inning of Game 2.

It sounds sort of obvious, but if the Guardians are going to win, they need to take a lead first. In Game 3, Boyd doesn’t have to throw a shutout -- he just needs to pitch better than Schmidt for long enough to hand it to his relievers, and then get out of the way. That might wear out the bullpen long term, but the Guardians are down 2-0 in this series. They don’t have time to worry about the long term. They have to win right now.

NLCS Game 4: Dodgers at Mets (LAD up 2-1)
8:08 p.m. ET, FS1
SP: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD) vs. Jose Quintana (NYM)

Dodgers: Wait … is this rotation actually good?
It wasn’t very long ago that the Dodgers looked like they didn’t have a single reliable starter in this series. Now it looks like they might have two … or even three? If you put aside the bullpen game in Game 2 and go with the notion that the Dodgers have three starters in their playoff rotation -- Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto -- those three starters have thrown … 16 consecutive scoreless innings.

• Dodgers-Mets NLCS Game 4 FAQ

Seriously, this team is supposed to have a rotation problem? After Flaherty’s seven scoreless innings in Game 1 and Buehler’s four in Game 3, Yamamoto -- who threw five scoreless in a decisive NLDS Game 5 against the Padres -- can essentially put this series away by keeping the party going. He wasn’t exactly dominant against San Diego, which actually hit the ball awfully hard against him, all told. But while Yamamoto was pretty fortunate not to give up any runs, five scoreless postseason innings are still five scoreless postseason innings. So many writers like me have spilled so much proverbial ink pointing out how thinned out the Dodgers’ rotation has been by injuries. But looking at those three … are we sure about that?

Mets: Can they get the vibes back?
In the bottom of the sixth inning Wednesday night, the Mets were down 4-0, which, if you’ve followed the Mets at all this postseason, meant that they had their opponent right where they wanted them. Dodgers reliever Ryan Brasier, last seen giving up a mammoth home run to Francisco Lindor in Game 2, was pitching. The Mets had runners on first and second with cult hero Jose Iglesias at the plate. After a night of the Citi Field fans being mostly silent -- and desperately not wanting to be -- the building was starting to buzz. This is the Mets’ moment! This is what they do! And then … Iglesias hit a meek ground ball to third, starting a double play and ending the most serious threat the Mets would put up the rest of the night.

Two innings later, Shohei Ohtani was launching his three-run blast to put the game away, and fans started filtering out to catch the train home. The Mets have been the best story of these playoffs because you can never count them out of a game, but when Iglesias hit into that double play, everybody collectively thought, “Oh, you can totally count the Mets out of this one.” Thursday is a new day, though, and this is a team that followed each of its first three losses this postseason with a victory, including in Game 2 of this series after a Game 1 shutout. Can they get those vibes back again? They need to, before it’s too late.