Sloppy play has the Cleveland Guardians facing a big deficit in the American League Championship Series. Cleveland’s rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio and right fielder Will Brennan committed costly errors Tuesday night, allowing runs to score as the New York Yankees beat the Guardians 6-3 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
"You would have loved to have won one of those games in New York simply to put some pressure on the Yankees,” Ideastream Public Media’s commentator Terry Pluto said. “Because it is the Yankees that are the team under the most pressure. They haven't been to the World Series since 2009, and they've had a lot of postseason failures in the last 15 years."
Pluto said it’s not impossible to come back from being down two games in a best-of-seven series.
“There have been 91 teams that have lost the first two games of the series, and 15 have come back to win, which actually is a little more than I thought," Pluto said. "So, it's about, I don't know, 14% chance or something."
Last season, the Arizona Diamondbacks game back from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Philadelphia Phillies, the team that was favored.
“If you want to make history, this would be a great way to do it,” Pluto said.
The miscues by Rocchio and Brennan came after Cleveland committed just one error in its first six postseason games. Pluto said the miscues are the most disappointing part of the series so far.
“You have the youngest roster in the majors playing the Yankees in New York and nerves are a factor,” Pluto said. “That's what Stephen Vogt, the Guardians manager said. ‘We have to go back to being who we are, play the way we play, play clean baseball. We've done it before. We can do it again to do it at home.’”
The other issue has been the offense. Tuesday night, Cleveland went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners.
The good news, Pluto said, is Josh Naylor came to life Tuesday with two singles and a sacrifice fly. Jose Ramirez is batting only .167, but he did homer in his final at-bat Tuesday.
“What this team usually needs to snap out of it is like a two-run or three-run homer," Pluto said. "In other words, a big home run like in the first round, Lane Thomas had a couple of those. So, they need something like that."
Pluto said the Guardians face a must-win Game 3 in Cleveland on Thursday.
“This was going to be tough before it started," Pluto said. "It's going to be tougher now, and the thing that you hope is, the Guardians get energized by what should be a loud, packed house stadium at Progressive Field."
Pluto said the Guardians will likely start Matthew Boyd, who pitched 4 ⅔ scoreless innings with five strikeouts against the Tigers, his former team, in Game 2 of the ALDS.
