Three takeaways from the Yankees' ALCS Game 1 win over the Cleveland Guardians
Carlos Rodon of the Yankees reacts after the sixth inning against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
After the Yankees defeated the Royals in the ALDS, Anthony Volpe asserted that their best baseball is ahead of them. Turns out, Volpe is both shortstop and a prophet.
The Yankees thoroughly dominated the Guardians, 5-2, in Game 1 of the ALCS in the Bronx. Here are three takeaways from a statement victory.
1. Carlos Rodon is in a groove, and Gerrit Cole is one of the reasons.
After his rough start against the Royals in the ALDS, Rodon said his goal was to stay more composed against a lefty-heavy Guardians lineup. He more than lived up to the task — and he did it by trying to emulate Cole’s mound demeanor.
“I watched Gerrit throw that Game 4 in Kansas City, and mentally I was taking notes on how he was going out there and going about it,” Rodon said. “There [was a point in that Game 4 when there were] runners on and he gets out of a jam. [He's] pretty even-keel walking off the mound. There's no screaming, there's no fist-pumping or anything. He's just, like I said, like a robot. He walks out and walks across the line and into the dugout. It's not that it's hard. It's just being mindful of it and being focused on the next pitch, and I think that kind of leads to that robot, that poker face.”
Rodon allowed one run and three hits with nine strikeouts in six innings, inducing 25 swings-and-misses behind a lively fastball and wicked slider. Aside from Brayan Rocchio’s solo homer in the sixth, the Guardians got exactly one batter into scoring position against Rodon: David Fry, who singled and made it as far as second in the first.
“I just thought he was very aware of what the last outing ended up being and how the emotions got away from him early, and that was going to be a focus for him,” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said. “He was trying to stay steady and neutral about it and just kept collecting outs.”
2. The Yankees solved the Guardians' bullpen for a day . . . but the effects might last longer than that.
The book on the Guardians is this: Their starters don’t last long and are highly beatable, but that hasn’t mattered all that much because of how good their bullpen is, coupled with their offense’s ability to build early leads and hold on. That equation, though, might get them into some trouble against the Yankees, who pushed Alex Cobb out of the game in 2 2/3 innings, forcing Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt to use four relievers in the loss (granted, he was able to stay away from his higher-leverage arms).
The key, Aaron Boone said, was patience at the plate and striking as early as they could (the Yankees’ three-run third started courtesy of Juan Soto’s leadoff homer).
“I thought we had really good at-bats,” Boone said. “We pressured them early and didn't score the first two innings where we had four baserunners, five baserunners. We were able to pressure Cobb a lot. He did a good job of holding us down. Finally Juan breaks through, and we kept the pressure on where, again, I thought we took a lot of good at-bats.”
Tiring out the Guardians' bullpen will be a key to this series, as the unit had the lowest regular-season ERA in baseball at 2.57 and one of its biggest workloads (623 innings). The starters, meanwhile, were 24th in both ERA and innings pitched.
3. Aaron Judge’s bat stayed quiet, but Giancarlo Stanton is making up for it.
Judge came into Monday hitting .154 this postseason and went 0-for-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly, but while the Yankees wait for their captain to get hot, Stanton continues to carry the load. Stanton – a .277 postseason hitter heading into Monday – tacked on his second playoff homer in the seventh, a 439-foot bomb off Erik Sabrowski to give the Yankees a 5-1 cushion. He's slashing .368/.455/.789 in this postseason.
Stanton is “locked in, focused, and that's of course what he's capable of,” Boone said. “That ball is absolutely nailed on a cold night, hitting it off the back of the bullpen out there.”
Stanton said he is “just hyperfocused,” adding, “I understand how important each pitch, each moment is. I understand that you're not always going to be successful in those moments, but anything I can do, any bit of information or video or swings, anything I can do to be in my best spot during this moment.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
