Benefits Of Facing Wild Card Yankees Could Manifest Themselves Early

Terry Francona made liberal use of his bullpen weapons while guiding the Cleveland Indians to the World Series last season, and Joe Girardi took that philosophy a step further while guiding the New York Yankees to the American League Division Series with a win in the wild-card game Tuesday. The Yankees earned the right to take on the Cleveland Indians, defeating the Minnesota Twins 8-4 Wednesday night in NY.

The New York Yankees enter the postseason led by rookie sensation and MVP favorite, Aaron Judge. Bauer got the hook after giving up a two-out single to Starlin Castro, with former Yankee Andrew Miller coming in to go after Greg Bird.

The Twins got on the board first, chasing Yankees starting pitcher Luis Severino after only 0.1 innings.

However, if Sabathia gets shelled and the Yankees lose, well, they were going up against Kluber and probably would’ve lost even if CC gave up just a few runs.

The MLB Playoffs Division Series get underway today, as the four remaining American League teams will all be in action. Edwin Encarnacion belted out a team-high 38 homers and 107 RBIs while Francisco Lindor belted out 30+ fingers of his own with 33 homers and 89 RBIs. Corey Kluber leads the risky Indians’ pitching staff into the ALDS, along with Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer.

Cleveland also won the regular-season series matchup between the two teams, going 5-2 (2-2 at home, 3-0 in New York). No, it is not a literal win or go home must win, but the Yankees do not want to be down 1-0 in the series with Kluber lined up for Game Two. He is 2-0 in two starts against the Yankees with a 1.38 ERA, allowing two earned runs on 11 hits with 11 strikeouts and six walks over 13 innings. I didn’t get a chance to meet him at the All-Star Game because I wasn’t there, but everybody came back raving about him as a person. He went 17-9 with a 2.90 ERA in 32 starts during his first regular season with Boston.

Aside from Todd Frazier’s 350-foot foul ball near the Budweiser Home Run Porch in left field, Bauer’s pitches were rarely met with quality contact.

The Indians will start with Trevor Bauer in Game 1 and save Kluber for Game 2.

The Indians are trying to do something that only four teams have done in the last 50 years – win the World Series one year after losing it. MVP candidates Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt did just that.

So much for stealing Game 1.

Despite hearing questions about his Game 1 start, Bauer repaid Francona’s faith early.

“That was a pretty good play”, Headley said.

Those two pitchers are young. The Indians are the 4-best team in the game in terms of hitting fastballs, according to FanGraphs. Not only do they have the experience and knowledge of what it takes to get it done, they have the hunger to do so after getting stung by the loss past year.

Bruce connected for a two-run homer in the fourth off Sonny Gray and added a sacrifice fly in the fifth as the Indians began a journey to try and end the majors’ longest Series title drought.

Yankees starter, right-hander Sonny Gray, had issues with walks after being acquired by NY at the trading deadline, and he was shaky early.

Roberto Perez put the Indians on the board after grounding into a double play with the bases loaded.

In the Indians’ playoff opener, Bauer threw the curveball for strikes in the zone as often as he buried it to wipe out hitters.