What to know about NY Yankees’ ALCS opponent

NEW YORK – For the second time in three seasons, the Yankees will meet the Cleveland Guardians in October.

This time, it’s in the best-of-seven AL Championship Series, beginning Monday night at Yankee Stadium – a quick turnaround for Cleveland after its five-game Division Series win against the Detroit Tigers.

Lane Thomas’ fifth inning grand slam off Detroit’s lefty ace Tarik Skubal sent the Guardians toward a 7-3 victory at Cleveland on Saturday afternoon, setting up an ALCS between the AL Central and AL East champs.

Here are three things to know about Cleveland heading into this series to decide the AL pennant:

Yankees’ recent playoff history vs. Cleveland

This will be the fourth Guardians-Yankees postseason meeting since 2017, with the Yanks winning all three previous meetings.

The last time was the 2022 AL Division Series, when Cleveland lost despite taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five. Facing elimination, Gerrit Cole rescued the Yanks on the road in Game 4.

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During the pandemic year of 2020, the Yanks swept two games at Cleveland to take the wild card series.

And in 2017, Joe Girardi’s last year as Yankees manager, his club came back from an 0-2 deficit in games to win the Division Series – taking Game 5 at Cleveland.

Before that, the Yanks lost the 2007 ALDS, with the famous “Lake Erie Midges’’ event in Game 2.

On the way to their second world championship under Joe Torre, the Yanks rallied past Cleveland in a six-game ALCS, a year after Sandy Alomar’s pivotal Game 4 homer off Mariano Rivera boosted Cleveland past the Yankees in a five-game ALDS.

Rookie manager guides Guardians to ALCS

Taking over for the legendary Terry Francona, rookie Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, 39, guided Cleveland to a 92-69 record and a division title, 6.5 games better than Kansas City and Detroit.

In the ALDS, Vogt’s club faced elimination after Game 3 and rebounded with a gritty 5-4 victory in Game 4 at Detroit to force the winner-take-all Game 5 at Progressive Field.

A big-league catcher for 10 years, mostly with Oakland, Vogt retired after the 2022 season and joined the Seattle Mariners coaching staff in 2023 before being named Cleveland’s manager.

“Coming in for the first time, fresh off the playing field…he’s done a great job,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Vogt.

With the 2024 Guardians, Vogt has had success with “kind of a bullpen-centric kind of theme, and also playing a lot of platoon advantages in different situations,” said Boone. “I think he’s done a really nice job with that.”

Yankees-Guardians head-to-head in 2024

In six meetings this year, the Yankees went 4-2 against the Guardians.

Way back in mid-April, the Yanks took two of three at Cleveland, which included a doubleheader caused by a rainout.

At Yankee Stadium in mid-August, the Yankees took two of three again, including a 6-0 victory started by Cole in which the Guardians had just one hit.

“Cleveland all year has kind of been that frontrunner in the Central,” said Boone. “They’ve put together a consistent, solid year and they do it in a lot of ways – a tremendous bullpen, athletic, they defend really well.”

Emmanuel Clase has led the AL in saves in each of the last three seasons, and he’s coming off a 47-save season with a stunning 0.61 ERA. In Game 5, Clase’s six-out save delivered Cleveland to the ALCS.

“They’re pretty balanced in their attack (with) a couple guys who can really hurt you in the middle of the order,” said Boone, with “a superstar player” in Jose Ramirez (39 HR, 118 RBI, .872 OPS in the regular season).

Cole gave up one hit over six innings in that Aug. 22 game but walked five batters in that game and struck out two.

According to Boone, Cole is lined up to start Game 2 on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, which would also set up the Yankees’ ace to start Game 6, or possibly Game 5 (if needed) on short rest.