CLEVELAND — Andrés Giménez is ready for the rowdy gauntlet of Yankee Stadium.
“It’s a mindset,” the Cleveland second baseman said through a translator ahead of Monday night's AL Championship Series opener. “It’s just this sense of belief we can do it because we know we can play baseball the right way.”
In the ALCS for the first time since 2016, Cleveland sends Alex Cobb to the mound against the Yankees' Carlos Rodón in the start of the best-of-seven matchup for a World Series berth against the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Mets.
Cleveland seeks its seventh AL pennant and first since 2016, trying to win its third World Series championship after 1920 and 1948. The Yankees are trying for their 41st pennant and 28th title, a heady history that leaves any year without a ring condemned as catastrophic.
“What makes the Yankees the Yankees is winning and winning a World Series,” said New York shortstop Anthony Volpe, who grew up a Yankees fan in Manhattan and New Jersey. “I had a way better view now than I did when I was a fan. There was sometimes where we were like basically sitting with our backs against the upper deck top row and it felt like the stadium was going to come down shaking.”
AL Central champion Cleveland beat Detroit in a five-game Division Series and the AL East-winning Yankees defeated Kansas City 3-1. While the Mets, Yankees and Dodgers are 1-2-3 in payroll at $266 million and up, the Guardians are 23rd at $109 million.
“We’re confident in who we are,” Guardians first-year manager Stephen Vogt said. “All we can control is us.”
Gerrit Cole, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil will follow Rodón in the Yankees rotation and Tanner Bibee will start Game 2 for the Guardians.
A chill in the air led some players to wear ski caps for Sunday's workout.
“I’m sure Yankee Stadium is going to be rocking tomorrow night,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It looks like cooler weather is moving in for these first two games, so it’s going to have that October feel to it.”
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Ugly past
Fans in the right-field bleachers pelted Cleveland outfielders with bottles, cans and debris moments after New York rallied for a 5-4 win in April 2022, a weekend in which Cleveland's Myles Straw called Yankees supporters the “worst fan base on the planet.”
Two years ago, Cleveland’s Josh Naylor angered Yankees fans with his rock-the-baby celebration of a home run off Cole in Game 4 of a Division Series won by the Yankees in five games.
“The reception a couple months ago was pretty good, so I’m sure it will be the same,” Vogt said.
Third baseman appreciation day
Cleveland's José Ramírez should get more nationwide attention in Boone's view.
“He’s the complete package,” the Yankees manager said. “If I hear another how underappreciated, underrated he is from somebody on a network or something, I want to rip my arms off and throw it at the TV. He’s not underappreciated. He is not underrated. He’s a great on-track Hall of Fame player.”
Ramírez had a quiet ALDS, going 3 for 16 with three RBIs,
“He’s one of the elite players in this league,” Vogt said. “He’s a top-five player in this league every year. In the baseball circles, everyone knows about it and talks about it.”
Rested
Cobb has thrown just 19 1/3 big league innings this year. The 37-year-old right-hander, a 2023 All-Star, had hip surgery on Oct. 31 and hadn’t yet returned to the mound when he was acquired from San Francisco at the July 30 trade deadline.
He made his season debut Aug. 9 and was sidelined after two games by a torn nail on his right index finger. He didn’t allow an earned run over six innings in his Sept. 1 return against Pittsburgh, then went back on the injured list with a blister on his right middle finger that ended his regular season.
“I felt on pace to have a pretty normal season after the hip surgery and just had setback after setback,” he said. " I don’t think anything’s gone quite like I expected it to this year, but to look up and to be in the ALCS and have an opportunity to set the tone early is something I’m going to cherish for a long time.
He was 2-1 with a 2.76 ERA in three games and 16 1/3 innings with the Guardians, then allowed two runs over three innings in Game 3 against Detroit.
“I’ve done everything I can to make sure that I’ve mentally stayed sharp, gone over my delivery as much as I could with the long layoffs in between,” he said. “Even though it was only three innings in the DS series, it helped a lot to get back into that game action and feel the adrenaline of the postseason.”
Stats
Juan Soto is 7 for 11 with four homers against Cobb.
Cleveland's bullpen threw 25 2/3 of 44 innings in the Division Series and had a 3.16 ERA, up from a big league-best 2.57 during the regular season.
“We’ve relied on our bullpen all year long, but now in a seven game — traditional seven games in nine days — you have to do it a little bit differently,” Vogt said. “With the days off we had in the DS, it allowed us to really push the bullpen more than typically.”
Yankees relievers didn't allow an earned run in 15 2/3 innings against the Royals.