3 things the Cleveland Guardians need to do to defeat the New York Yankees

The Cleveland Guardians are taking on the New York Yankees for a spot in the American League Championship Series.

The Cleveland Guardians will meet the New York Yankees on Tuesday in the American League Divisional Round and all bets are off when it comes to what will happen. On paper, the Yankees are a “better” team, but the Guardians are a hotter team. Does that matter? You better believe it.

Baseball is a whacky sport. You can do everything right and somehow a guy will still beat you. It’s not as simple to break down and analyze things as it is in the NBA or NFL. The rate of success is much lower than in any other sport, and the window for a mistake is also much bigger. A minor misplacement of a ball could be a home run or a minor drop in your shoulder could turn into a double-play.

Then you have to worry about the human element, errors, injuries, and exhaustion, and predicting baseball is oftentimes a crapshoot. Especially over just five games. The playoffs are not a time in the season to start leaning on expectations. We see it all the time, maybe more in baseball than in any other sport, where luck rules the day.

The Yankees are power-hitting monsters, with a solid rotation and a good bullpen. They’ve also been inconsistent as of late and over-rely on Aaron Judge. The Guardians are a good hitting team but can’t produce much offense if they string together hits, but their pitching may be the best in the league.

So what happens? Who knows but we have some ideas on how the Guardians can put their best foot forward against the Bronx Bombers.

Three things the Cleveland Guardians need to do against the New York Yankees

Contact, Contact, Contact

It’s a simple concept but not always easy to execute. The Tampa Bay rays only gave up three runs against the Guardians and held them to just 13 hits over those two games but they still lost. The Guardians may not be able to duplicate that success against the Yankees. This team is already patient, but they need to shore up those strikeouts and not swing at junk. Stringing together singles and working counts to get a walk is the only way this team will win. They can’t afford to have another series where they post 26 strikeouts and just three walks.

Don’t give Aaron Judge anything to hit

This is a very simple theory that everyone in the Majors has tried. It doesn’t often work. The AL home run king is a player that can demolish a ball. Leave anything hanging or challenge him down the middle and he’ll take you deep. Especially in the Yankees ballpark, which Sports Illustrated gave the fifth easiest place to hit in. The short porch in right is an easy place for hitters to go deep in, partly due to the wind that whips through there. So Judge will be extra lethal at any games in New York. Throw pitches that dance on the edges and see if you can get him swinging. He may have led the MLB and AL in Home Runs but he was also third in the AL for strikeouts (175), so you can get him chasing.

Don’t over-extend the bullpen

Unless the Guardians get another sweep, the odds this series goes five are high. More than that, The Guardians may face the Houston Astros next round should they get through New York. You shouldn’t manage for what will come, but you have to be mindful of it regardless. Making sure your starting rotation can get you through most of a game is so important, and if you have to go to the pen, making sure you have a guy who can eat innings if need be is almost as necessary.