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The Cleveland Guardians' season is over. Despite their best efforts, the Guardians and first-year manager Stephen Vogt could not overcome pitching woes against the New York Yankees, who beat Cleveland in five games in the ALCS to advance to the World Series.
Although the Guardians had some of the best relievers in baseball for the entire season, including closer and Cy Young candidate Emmanuel Clase, the relievers could not keep it up once in the postseason and, in particular, against the Yankees. But Vogt used a moment following the season-ending Game 5 loss to praise the pitchers for the impact they had on the team's 2024 campaign.
“They carried us here,” Vogt said. “If it wasn't for those guys, we wouldn't have gotten this far. They deserve a ton of credit.”
Guardians relievers fell apart in ALCS loss to Yankees
The cracks began to form in the ALDS when Clase, who had not allowed a run in more than a month, surrendered a three-run home run in the ninth inning of Game 2 vs. the Detroit Tigers, who would win that game and the next one to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
While the Guardians would come back and win the next two games and the series, Clase again allowed an earned run in Game 4, and three different relievers allowed earned runs in Game 5.
In the ALCS, the jump in talent from the Tigers to the Yankees was quite evident. After dropping Game 1 after a poor start by Alex Cobb, the Guardians seemed as if they may overcome Tanner Bibee's bad start in Game 2. However, Erik Sabrowksi allowed one earned and Hunter Gaddis surrendered two earned runs as the Yankees won 6-3.
Even in Cleveland's lone win of the series, the team had to overcome another shocking Clase blown save. After the Yankees hit back-to-back home runs off of Clase to take the lead in the 8th inning and added to their advantage in the 9th, Jhonkensy Noel hit a game-tying two-run home run before David Fry hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning.
In Game 4, though, Cade Smith let up three runs and Clase again allowed a pair of runs to come across home plate in the 9th inning as the Yankees took a commanding 3-1 lead. Game 5, while thrilling, ended with another reliever broken by the Yankees; Juan Soto crushed a three-run home run in the 10th off of Gaddis to give New York the lead and eventual win.
Despite the playoff disappointments, the Guardians should certainly feel positive about how the year went, especially after going nearly the entire season without ace Shane Bieber, who had Tommy John surgery back in April. Cleveland competed for the top seed in the AL most of the year and won the AL Central for the second time in three years.
As for the Yankees, they now await the winner of the NLCS. The Los Angeles Dodgers currently lead the series against the New York Mets 3-2. Game 6 is tonight at 8:08 p.m. ET.
