The Yankees will clinch with a win in Cleveland tonight.
Yay, what fun. The Yankees are close to eliminating the Guardians and punching their ticket to the World Series. Last night, Cleveland showed gumption in battling back from a 7-2 deficit to tie the game, but their All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase is struggling at the worst possible time, allowing the Yankees to pull of a game-winning rally in the ninth last night.
Yankees at Guardians, 8:08 pm, TBS — NYY lead 3-1
Starters: LHP Carlos Rodón (1-1, 4.66 ERA) vs. RHP Tanner Bibee (0-1, 3.60 ERA)
Thus far in the postseason, Rodón has made two starts. In the first, against Kansas City, he wasn’t great, allowing four runs on seven hits in 3.2 innings in an eventual loss. In the second, Game 1 of the ALCS versus Cleveland, he was much better, going six while striking out nine and allowing just one run, a home run by Brayan Rocchio.
Right hander Tanner Bibee has had himself a good October over three postseason starts. He held the Tigers off the board over 4.2 innings on October 5. Five days later, he allowed two runs in an eventual Cleveland win. On October 15, he had a very short outing in an eventual Game 2 loss: he allowed lots of traffic early, gave up two earned runs, and got pulled early after just 1.1 innings.
So it’s pretty simple: if Rodón pitches close to how he did in Game 1, and Bibee like he did in Game 2, the Yankees will have won themselves a trip to the ALCS.