Yankees vs. Guardians ALCS was sloppy, but Cleveland’s mistakes continued to mount throughout the two games

NEW YORK – You have to play near-flawless baseball to get to the World Series, and the Cleveland Guardians have been anything but in the two games of the American League Championship Series. The New York Yankees won Game 2 (NY 6, CLE 3) on Tuesday night and led the best-of-seven series 2-0. The series continues Thursday at Progressive Field.

The Yankees opened Game 1 with a solo homer by Juan Soto and ended it with a solo homer by Giancarlo Stanton. In between, New York scored three runs, all aided by wild pitches. In the third inning we scored twice on wild pitches. An inning later, wild pitches (plural) moved the runner to second And Third before a sacrifice fly brought him home.

Joey Cantillo’s four wild pitches in Game 1 are the second-most ever in a postseason game behind Rick Ankiel’s five in his NLDS Game 1 in 2000, and the Yankees were the first team ever to do so in a postseason game Runs scored on several wild pitches. They did it in the same inning. They did it in six pitches! The Guardians kept giving away 90 feet.

“He seemed a little quicker at first, but then it looked like he was having trouble finding the strike zone,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said of Cantillo after Game 1.

Additionally, the Guardians issued seven walks in Game 1, including four in a span of six batters in the third inning. Those three wild pitch-assisted runs? All three runners initially reached the finish while walking. The seven walks in Game 1 were Cleveland’s most in a nine-inning game since August 22. “We just have to attack the zone better, and we didn’t do that tonight,” Vogt said.

The self-inflicted damage continued into Game 2. In the bottom of the first inning Gold Glove finalist Brayan Rocchio dropped an infield popup from Aaron Judge with runners on the corners, allowing a run to score and also extending the inning. Tanner Bibee needed 27 pitches to get the first three outs of the game, which contributed at least in part to his exit in the second inning.

Even when the Guardians did something right, it ended up backfiring. With the bases loaded and a base out in the fourth inning on Tuesday, Vogt went for the big hit, pinch-hitting David Fry for starting catcher Bo Naylor. Fry threw a first-pitch fastball into foul territory on the third base side, and Cleveland did not score in the inning.

Pinching Fry was the right move. The Guardians were down 3-0 at the time and with the bases full, it was a chance to up the scoreboard and get back into the game. And really, the swing on the first pitch was fine too. It was a fastball in the zone and Fry narrowly missed it. Often the first pitch is the best one to hit, and Fry did it. That’s baseball sometimes.

Fry’s hit for Naylor forced light-hitting backup catcher Austin Hedges into the game and the big spot found him an inning later. The Guardians loaded the bases again, this time scoring two runs in the fifth and knocking Gerrit Cole out of the game. With the bases loaded and two outs, Hedges came in with his .152/.203/.220 season slash line and struck out to end the threat.

Hedges also made it to the finale of Game 1 after coming off the bench late. Again, hitting Fry for Naylor in Game 2 was the right move, but it just didn’t work, and things got worse when Hedges came to the plate in a big spot an inning later.

The Guardians capped their sloppy play in Game 2 when right fielder Will Brennan swept Anthony Rizzo’s double off the sidewall not once, but twice. He tried to pick up the ball with his bare hand, dropped it, picked it up, dropped it again, and finally brought it into the infield. The two bobbles allowed Anthony Volpe to score from first base after initially being pinned at third base.

Brennan also dropped Volpe’s line drive with one out in the eighth inning, turning one out into a single. This one didn’t come back to bite the Guardians (Volpe was stranded) and it was a difficult play (Brennan had to slip), but still, it’s a play a major leaguer should make, and it wasn’t made. It was a free baserunner, more stress on the pitching staff, and so on and so forth.

To be fair to Cleveland, the Yankees played sloppy baseball in Game 2 as well. Cole walked four batters in 4 1/3 innings and trailed all night. And in the sixth inning, the Yankees found themselves on the bases with two outs. Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Rizzo were both caught straying too far from second base, sabotaging a potentially big inning.

John Sterling, on his maiden voyage as a Yankees radio host, made a splash in this inning:

The Yankees gave the Guardians two poison outs in that sixth inning – inexplicable baserunning errors, in fact – but Cleveland gave them much more in the two ALCS games. Four wild pitches, seven walks and three gift runs in Game 1. A dropped pop up, a double-bobbled double and Hedges at-bats in Game 2. Free outs, free bases, free runs.

The ALCS hasn’t played well yet. Both teams made their fair share of mistakes, errors and blunders, but Cleveland’s were more costly. Their mistakes immediately caused runs to falter and now the Guardians are down 2-0 in the series and need to win four times in their next five games. It’s doable, they’re a very good team, but these mistakes have to be cleaned up for it to happen.