Quantrill, Guardians stumble in Game 1 of ALDS

NEW YORK -- Guardians starter Cal Quantrill gave his team everything it could’ve asked for through five innings.

He was responsible for one miscue: a solo shot by Yankees No. 9 hitter Harrison Bader. Quantrill kept the big sluggers from taking the ball out of the park. The other run he gave up was unearned as a result of an error by Oscar Gonzalez in right field. Through five innings, Quantrill had seen the Yankees’ lineup twice and kept them from doing tremendous damage.

But when Guardians manager Terry Francona decided to let Quantrill face the top of the lineup for a third time in the sixth inning, the wheels fell off the cart. Aaron Judge drew a walk before Anthony Rizzo hit a two-run homer that put Cleveland in a hole it couldn’t dig out of, leading to a 4-1 loss in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

“His line is not going to look as good because of the last home run,” Francona said. “I thought he was throwing the ball really well early.”

Quantrill’s fastball velocity was up a tick in the early innings, and he was inducing more strikeouts than he usually does. There were a lot of reasons to believe he had more left in the tank. He ended the fifth with two runs allowed (one unearned) on just 72 pitches. He was about to start facing hitters for the third time in the game, as Judge was set to lead off the bottom of the sixth. During the regular season, Quantrill struggled more the second time he faced a hitter than the third time (.309 and .249 batting averages against him, respectively).

But even though he may have earned the right to be trusted in this scenario, facing a lineup like the Yankees is a different animal, especially in the postseason. And seeing Quantrill for a third time certainly paid off for Rizzo, who launched a 3-2 cutter into the second deck in right field.

“Just caught a little too much plate with that one,” Quantrill said. “Probably put myself in a couple counts I didn’t need to. But on the whole, I thought we threw the ball all right. Again, those big moments, guys on, you gotta find a way to get that guy out and give the team a chance to win. It was going to be hard to score runs today no matter what. … I just didn’t keep us in it there at the end.”

This marks Quantrill’s first loss since July 5. The Guardians went 16-1 in his last 17 starts of the season. While he owned a sub-3.00 ERA in that span, Quantrill received tremendous support from his offense -- something the pitching staff hasn’t been gifted thus far in the postseason. Cleveland has only been able to score on a trio of homers in its first three playoff games, including one on Tuesday by Steven Kwan.

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Because of the offensive struggles, pitching has become even more important for the Guardians, and not playing it safe against a dangerous Yankees lineup by turning to a bullpen that still has yet to allow a run in 13 postseason innings may have cost the Guardians an early-series victory.

The bullpen has given the Guardians every reason to lean on it this season. The group had the fourth highest fWAR (6.6) in the Majors and the fifth lowest ERA (3.05). And when Cleveland needed 15 innings to clinch a spot in the ALDS on Saturday against the Rays, the relief corps collectively worked nine scoreless frames to help solidify the win.

Instead, the Guardians chose a path not many have against the Yankees this year. New York has faced a starter for a third time in a game in 648 plate appearances -- the third fewest among all 30 clubs this season. And now, Cleveland is left playing catch up.

A win in the series opener in the ALDS has always been crucial. In the history of best-of-five postseason series, Game 1 winners have gone on to win the series 102 of 144 times (71%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams winning Game 1 at their home ballparks have advanced 34 of 47 times (72%). Within those same parameters, teams winning Game 1 on the road have advanced 29 of 41 times (71%).

“Today was obviously really tough,” Kwan said, “but I think we do a really good job of kind of having a short-term memory and going out the next day and doing what we can.”