Cal Quantrill will need to pitch like a Game 1 starter on Tuesday if the Cleveland Guardians are to not only banish their demons from Yankee Stadium but also defeat the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series.
The starters for the first three games of the best-of-five ALDS series between the Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees have been revealed. The series begins on Tuesday night in the Bronx.
This will be Cleveland’s first visit to Yankee Stadium since the end of April, when the Yankees completed a three-game sweep and Yankee fans expressed their displeasure to Cleveland players by hurling insults at Guardians outfielders following a walk-off victory.
The fact that Cole crushed Cleveland the day after the walk-off incident, limiting the Guardians to four hits over 6.2 innings, while striking out nine in a 10-2 New York victory, was overlooked in that emotional series, though.
Whatever you want to call it, Cole will be back in Cleveland on Tuesday night, and New York supporters will be ready to vent once more about the Guardians. What effect will that have on Cleveland, which has baseball’s youngest roster?
Quantrill will be essential in helping The Guardians remove the New York supporters from the game early on. When facing Cole, the 27-year-old right-hander must maintain his late-season run, in which he has thrown 69.1 innings with opponents batting just.226/.266/.319 against him over his previous 12 starts, posting a 2.21 ERA and 3.17 FIP.
It’s encouraging for the Guardians to start the series off on the right foot if Quantrill can achieve that same level of success in New York.
This Yankees club is unquestionably different than the one the Guardians met in New York in April. But is it more like the group that lost two of three games to the Guardians in Cleveland at the beginning of July, which marked the beginning of a two-month period during which New York finished 23-31? If so, a pitching trio consisting of Triston McKenzie, Shane Bieber, and Quantrill might succeed on the mound.
