ALCS Game 1: Guardians vs. Yankees game thread

Kicking things off in the American League side for the night cap

Here we go folks. With a trip to the Fall Classic on the line the Cleveland Guardians will take on the New York Yankees in the Bronx for Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. It’ll be a best-of-seven between the top-2 teams in the AL this season. Cleveland went the full five games in the last round while New York was able to vanquish their opponent in four games, giving them an extra two days of rest awaiting for Cleveland to arrive.

Cleveland currently has the second-longest championship drought in the four major North American sports at a whopping 76 years, though it wasn’t long ago (2016) that they made it to the World Series, losing in extra innings in an epic Game 7 to the Chicago Cubs, who at the time were the only team with a longer drought. Now that Chicago has broken their streak the baseball world should be rooting for the Guardians to hoist a trophy sooner than later, maybe even this year. They’re one of the final four teams and have a certain manager that A’s fans adore and love. As a fellow small-market, low-payroll club, A’s fans should be rooting for them in this series, but to each their own.

For the Guardians they’ll be sending right-handed veteran Alex Cobb to the mound to get this series started for the AL Central winners. Cobb will be making just his fourth major-league start this season after beginning the year on the IL for the San Francisco Giants. A midseason trade to Cleveland has him in the postseason for just the second time in his 13-year career and taking the ball for the first time in the ALCS, it’s fair to call this the biggest start of his career. On the plus side he looked good in his three regular-season starts for the Guardians down the stretch, but on the negative side he allowed a pair of runs over three innings in his lone postseason start this year. The Guardians will be hoping to get more than that out of Cobb, especially here in Game 1 when we have the whole series in front of us.

Here is how Cleveland will line up behind Cobb for Game 1 against the Yankees:

That lineup will be going up against Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodon tonight at Yankee Stadium. The veteran lefty hasn’t been what the Yankees were hoping they were getting when they shelled out $162MM two offseasons ago but at least he improved in Year 2 of that 6-year deal. After dealing with injury problems in his first season in New York the lefty made 32 starts, anchoring a rotation that dealt with injuries for the first half of the season and ineffectiveness in the second half. Rodon will be tasked with helping New York make it back to the ALCS after falling in the Division Round last season. For being a 10-year veteran this will be only the third postseason that Rodon has taken part of, including just his third October start. At least he can hang his hat on the fact that Cobb also doesn’t have much playoff experience.

How the Yankees will line up to kick off this series:

Who will you be rooting for? First pitch will be at 4:38 so don’t miss a pitch!