Guardians' home-field advantage is real and returning at perfect time

CLEVELAND – There truly is no place like home for the Guardians, whose record of 50-30 at Progressive Field during the regular season topped the American League.

As this American League Championship Series shifts away from the raucous atmosphere of Yankee Stadium, defending The Land is a must for the Guardians if they are going to have any shot of climbing out of an undesirable 2-0 hole against New York.

It was clear how much of a home fortress Progressive Field can be in the Division Series against the Tigers. The Guardians fed off the energy of the buzzing Cleveland faithful in Game 1 with a five-run outburst in the first inning that sent them into a frenzy and rode that to a 7-0 series-opening victory. The vibes were even wilder for Game 5, when the ballpark became unglued after Lane Thomas launched a dramatic grand slam off likely AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, catapulting the Guardians to the next round of the postseason.

“The energy was crazy and special to see how much support and love the fans show for us,” Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio said, with the help of team interpreter Agustin Rivero. “Especially when things were going well or not going really well. For us, it's the motivation to keep going because their energy and support is compared to none.”

Following Tuesday’s Game 2 loss, left fielder Steven Kwan stressed the importance of the team getting back to its “Guard Ball” identity, which consists of playing fundamentally sound baseball and doing the small things – aggressive baserunning, bunting, moving runners over – that apply pressure on the other team.

For most of the first two games against the Yankees, that pressure from Cleveland was absent. Instead they had to deal with early deficits and were unable to utilize The Big Four – Cade Smith, Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis, Emmanuel Clase – to shorten games out of the bullpen like they so often did in the regular season.

Could a return to some home cooking help Guard Ball resurface?

“I think it could be that the crowd gets into it,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “I just think that when we get stuff going and we make things happen, that's when we click. We did that [Tuesday] night. We just weren't able to get that big hit.”

The proverbial big hit eluded the Guardians in both losses at Yankee Stadium as they combined to go 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded a total of 16 runners on base in the first two games.

While there are no huge discrepancies with the pitching staff when it comes to home/road splits, the numbers will show that the Guardians do enjoy better success on offense at home. During the regular season, they hit .245 with a .729 OPS as a team at Progressive Field as opposed to .231 with a .678 OPS on the road. They also hit more home runs in Cleveland (99) than on the road (86).

The home confines just seem to bring out the best from some of these hitters. Josh Naylor’s OPS was over 150 points higher at home (.852) than on the road (.699) this season. Even superstar José Ramírez – who is good everywhere – upped his game in Cleveland, hitting .301 with a .915 OPS at home as opposed to .257 with an .829 OPS away from Progressive Field. Either of those hitters, both of whom have had a relatively quiet postseason to this point, is capable of being a game-changer in this lineup.

Based on the ALDS, this crowd is certainly going to show up in full force. It will be loud and electric as ever, hoping to will the home team to its first AL pennant since 2016, which Cleveland locked up on the road against the Blue Jays that year. They would have to do so again this year in New York if they can get the series back there.

It all starts with Game 3 on Thursday night and returning to that winning formula: Apply pressure early by any means possible to secure a lead and hand it off to their dominant back end of the bullpen.

“We love playing at home,” Vogt said. “We love playing in front of our fans. I think for us, knowing we have three games here, we feel really good about it. Obviously we would have loved to have taken one in New York, but we still feel really good about our chances.”