The American League Championship Series is level at 1-1, and for the Cleveland Guardians, the next few days now come into focus in a much simpler way.
After splitting the first two games with the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Monday and Tuesday, the series shifts to Progressive Field for an afternoon game on Thursday. There’s a day off on Wednesday, and from there Cleveland gets its chance to shape the series on home soil.
Nick Camino offered a clean way to frame it.
“New short-term goal for the Guardians: Win a 3-game series in Cleveland. Period.
You take 2-of-3 at Progressive Field, you get two cracks at it in a Game 6 or Game 7 in St. Pete to advance to the World Series.
Brought it home tied 1-1, now win a series here,” Camino posted.
That approach strips away the noise and turns the next stretch into something manageable. If Cleveland wins two of the three at home, the Guardians would be heading back to Tropicana Field with a chance to close it out on the next trip.
Sweep all three, and the job gets even cleaner. But even taking two of three against the team with the best record in the American League would be a strong position to be in.
The Guardians will start that push Thursday with right-hander Gavin Williams on the mound. Williams has been excellent in the postseason, carrying a 1.54 ERA across 11.2 innings. The eye-opening number is the strikeout total: 24 batters punched out already this year.
In Other News...
Guardians' Most Painful Trade Looks Even Worse After New Report
The 2021 swap that sent Junior Caminero from Cleveland to Tampa Bay has long lingered as one of the organizations toughest second guesses, and fresh reporting only adds another layer to the regret. The Guardians moved the then-rising prospect for pitcher Tobias Myers, a deal made with the hope of solving a pitching need while parting with a young hitter who was still far from the majors.
Now the sting is not just what Cleveland gave up, but how close the Rays came to asking for something else from the system before settling on Caminero. Xzavion Curry was among the minor leaguers Tampa Bay initially sought, and the fact that Caminero has developed into a top prospect while Myers and Curry have had quieter big league careers makes the trade look even harder to defend in hindsight. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Schedule Change Created An Unusual MLB Playoff Ripple
MLBs postseason calendar picked up an odd little domino effect Wednesday, with the league moving Game 4 of the NLCS between the Dodgers and Brewers up an hour to 8 p.m. ET. The change did not come out of nowhere. It followed the earlier decision to shift ALCS Game 3 between the Guardians and Rays from 6 p.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET because of expected inclement weather, a reminder of how one playoff adjustment can ripple across the rest of the bracket.
For Cleveland fans, the practical part is simple: the team confirmed that tickets and parking passes will still work for the new start time. The bigger picture is a postseason schedule that can still bend quickly around weather, TV and the rest of the leagues needs, even as the Guardians try to stay focused on the field rather than the clock. [Read more 🡒]
Gavin Williams Is Giving Guardians Fans Another Reason To Believe
Gavin Williams has already done his share to fuel Clevelands October run, and now he is looking to add something else to the mix as the Guardians head into the next round. The young starting pitcher said he wants to be a more vocal leader as the club prepares for Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, a sign of how quickly he has grown from power arm to one of the voices in the room.
Williams backed up that confidence with his latest outing, throwing 5.2 scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts in the series-clinching win over the Chicago White Sox. Cleveland now turns to a Game 3 matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays, set for 1 PM ET Thursday after a weather-related delay from the original 6 PM start, and the Guardians will be hoping their emerging starter brings the same edge both on the mound and in the clubhouse. [Read more 🡒]