Guards ready for ALCS challenge vs. Yanks: 'We're going to play our ball'

CLEVELAND -- By the time the five games were over, the Guardians and Tigers had given each other everything they had.

They’d combined for 45 pitching changes. They’d combined for 21 pinch-hit plate appearances. They had each beaten each other’s allegedly unbeatable pitcher. They had frazzled the brains and nerves of every baseball fan from Cheboygan to Ashtabula and probably turned thousands of Toledoans against each other.

In the end, the Guardians prevailed, 7-3, on Saturday in a Game 5 matinee matchup that, in keeping with this American League Division Series as a whole, was an emotionally draining yet thrilling baseball experience to behold. They were the ones puffing on cigars and celebrating at Progressive Field.

"We know now,” said Guardians reliever Cade Smith, whose dominant work anywhere from the third to the seventh innings was elemental in sealing this series in Cleveland’s favor, “that we can play with our backs up against the wall.”

• Guardians-Yankees ALCS Game 1 FAQ

But even before Lane Thomas had earned himself free meals for life in Cleveland’s corned beef delis with a game-changing grand slam, even before Guardians manager Stephen Vogt had surprised and puzzled everybody by beginning to empty his ‘pen in the third inning (when he summoned Smith to replace starter Matthew Boyd after two scoreless frames), even before Emmanuel Clase had closed it out with the first two-inning save of his career, it seemed that whoever came out of this series alive was going to be stronger for it.

Hey, maybe we’re wrong. Maybe the resting Yankees could watch Saturday’s events unfold and feel comfortable with the notion that the Guardians and Tigers exhausting themselves (and, more notably, their bullpens) to try to get to the AL Championship Series that begins Monday night in the Bronx will benefit them, either way. Maybe, after dispatching one AL Central squad in their four-game triumph over the Royals, the Yanks will easily overtake another.

But it says here that the Yankees have their hands full, and they very well might, because there’s something dangerous about an October squad that can mix, match and make you miserable.

"Obviously, they catch a lot of momentum coming out of this series,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said of the Guards. “Now, they’re going into one of the toughest places to play [in Yankee Stadium]. But if they can get their guys rested and recovered and are able to use their bullpen to their advantage, they’re a tough team to score on."

What made this ALDS so fun for those who thrive on thinking along with the skippers as games unfold was the depth of both bullpens, which were arguably the two best assembled in this year’s postseason field.

The Guardians’ relief corps was anchored all year by Clase, Smith, Hunter Gaddis and lefty Tim Herrin, who all had sub-2.00 ERAs and at least 74 appearances apiece. The club’s 2.57 relief ERA was the fourth best of the Wild Card era (since 1995).

But some of Saturday’s biggest outs came from right-hander Eli Morgan, whose 28.1% hard-hit rate was actually the lowest in Cleveland’s bullpen this year (minimum 100 batted ball events), and lefty Erik Sabrowski, a September callup whose performance down the stretch was so impressive (0.79 WHIP in 12 2/3 innings) that he compelled Cleveland to bump longer-tenured options off the ALDS roster.

Perhaps this group is gassed after what it just took to tame the Tigers. Perhaps, now that Clase uncharacteristically allowed five hits in 5 2/3 innings in this ALDS (including the go-ahead three-run Kerry Carpenter blast in Game 2), the Yankees will seize upon his vulnerability and the young guns who set him up will run out of outs after all the wear and tear it took to get here.

Or maybe, now that it’s more battled-tested than ever, this group has exactly what it takes to reduce the impact of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Co.

"I think the best thing that we do,” said Vogt, “is we plan the game every night, and we've done this all year long. We plan the game. Obviously, there's nights where you have to rip it up, but we've talked through exactly what we want to do and when, and using [pitching coach Carl Willis], using the pitching staff, using the analytics, using everybody. And I think I've just learned that there's times where you can follow script when the game tells you to and there's other times where you have to rip it up and go rogue, and you can't be married to one idea.”

The Guardians can’t hold a candle to the Yankees in terms of pure offensive firepower. The 60 points of team OPS that separated these two squads in-season are big ones, and Cleveland was held scoreless for 20 innings in the midst of the series against Detroit.

But the Yankees proved pitchable in their ALDS with the Royals, going 6-for-35 with runners in scoring position. And “Guards Ball” -- the high-contact, busy baserunning (148 steals to the Yanks’ 88) style that got Cleveland here -- could play up in this round.

"We're going to play our ball,” Ramírez said through interpreter Agustin Rivero. “It’s an aggressive game. I trust our guys.”

The Guards took the Yanks to the brink in the 2022 ALDS with an offense that was pretty punchless outside of Ramírez and Josh Naylor. This one has a bit more depth and dimension to it, and, notably, table-setter Steven Kwan (10 hits in the ALDS) is running hot.

Plus, as we’ve seen so many times in Octobers past, when guys like Thomas and David Fry (go-ahead two-run homer in Game 4) are popping off in the postseason, sometimes a team just has a certain magic working for it.

Look, it’s this simple: The Guardians just beat the best pitcher in baseball this season in Tarik Skubal, one of the very few starters in this increasingly bullpen-oriented October who profiles as an appointment-viewing Dude with a capital D.

Do that, and you can beat anybody.

"The way this group competes, the way they care for each other, the way they pick each other up,” said Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti, “it's really a unique bond."

No one circled this series as a barnburner. (Hint: If there are four playoff games in one day, as there were on the day the Division Series started, the one scheduled for 1 p.m. ET is not the marquee matchup.)

But this turned into a beautifully brutal battle.

"They don't quit, we don't quit,” Vogt said. “And it was an unbelievable series.”

Now, the victor might just have another unbelievable series ahead.