Tonight at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio, the New York Yankees will face the Cleveland Indians, which might be the most important game the Yankees will have in this coronavirus postseason. Two of arguably the best pitchers in baseball will face each other in the matchup to win the first of the three games of the Wild Card round, of the 2020 postseason. The Yankee’s Gerrit Cole will face the Indian’s Shane Beiber, who has a lock on the 2020 Cy Young Award.
The New York Yankees had an up and down season with long stretches of wins and losses, as they suffered injuries reminiscent of the 2019 season when they had an unprecedented number of injuries to 30 players in 39 separate incidences. The Yankees have endured a season without Luis Severino and Domingo German, two of their most successful starting pitchers. For almost half the season, they have Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, their two most important power hitters on the IL. These two factors, along with a multitude of other injuries, changed the Yankee team that was forecasted to take the East and go to their 28th World Championship, to a team that struggled throughout the season and yet made the postseason in the expanded format.
Much of the New York Yankees’ success can be attributed to the purchase, during the offseason of the best available pitcher on the market. The Houston Astros co-ace Gerrit Cole became a New York Yankee. Cole, in the first season of his $324 million, 9-year contract, went 7-3 with an ERA of 2.84 over 12 starts. The other two keys to the Yankees success are named DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit. LeMahieu was only on the IL for ten days, nevertheless will be the AL Batting Champ and the only player in baseball history to win the title in both leagues. Voit for his part, while having foot issues, powered through them, and will have the most home runs of anyone in baseball.
Tonight, at Progressive Field in Cleveland with no fans in the stands, the Indians will lose much of their home field advantage without the cheers and boos of fans. The Indians will also be playing without their manager Terry Francona recovering from gastrointestinal surgery and blood clots. The team will, instead, by managed by Sandy Alomar Jr., who has managed 26 Indians games in the 2020 season. The Indians are 35-25 on the season and the Yankees are 33-27.
The weather tonight at 7:08 pm eastern daylight time will be cloudy with only a 15% chance of a passing shower. The game will be played with temperatures in the low sixties. The Field is located in the heart of downtown Cleveland and is an open stadium. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN. For those that do not have access to ESPN, it will be on ESPN radio, and in New York on WFAN with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. For those on Facebook, you can follow the game thread and chat with other Yankee fans on Yankee Fans R US!!
Tonight, in the very first game of the most unusual season and postseason in baseball history, the Cleveland Indians will see their defacto ace take the mound at Progressive Field in Cleveland, and face a hardened postseason savvy New York Yankees team that has won 40 AL pennants, and 27 World Championships. Shane Bieber, in the regular season, has been everything the Indians could have wanted; he went 8-1 in 12 games started. The 25-year-old righty leads all of baseball with 8 wins and the lowest ERA of any pitcher, just 1.63. Stats wise Bieber has the advantage over the Yankee’s Cole.
Given the circumstances of this coronavirus season, the Yankees did not get the opportunity to square off against Shane Bieber. However, since making his debut in 2018, Bieber has pitched against the Yankees twice. In those two starts, he combined for an 8.31 ERA over eight and two-thirds innings of work. He did record ten strikeouts between both starts, but had eight earned runs and gave up one home run. The fact remains that Bieber has never beaten the Yankees. If he has the stats advantage, he loses that advantage to the hardened postseason successful Cole. Bieber has never pitched a postseason game. The Yankee’s Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu and Clint Frazier will want to take advantage of his breaking ball.
The New York Yankees will put their faith in their 29-year-old righty ace Gerrit Cole. Cole is a hardened postseason veteran who went 4-1 in the postseason last year, with the Houston Astros, with an ERA of just 1.48. Cole pitches with an intensity seldom seen in baseball; he also can pitch complete games, he shares the title for the complete games in the 2020 season. His catcher tonight will be Kyle Higasioka. When pitching to Higashioka; Cole is nearly unhittable. The Yankees had been using Cole and Higashioka as battery mates for almost a month now. Cole’s last start of the season was the fourth straight time Yankee manager Boone has paired Higashioka with him. In those four starts, the righty has a 1.00 ERA. He has struck out 34 and allowed three home runs. Cole will want to protect against giving up the long ball.
In any single game, regardless of stats and past experiences, anything can happen especially for these two teams that have been inconsistent in their seasons. But with this historic pitching matchup, it makes for must-watch tv. The real loser in this game may end up being the Trump/Biden Presidential debate that will start about in the sixth inning of tonight’s game. After tonight’s game, Masahiro Tanaka will face the Indian’s Carlos Carrasco in game two of the series on Wednesday evening.