Cleveland's World Series Drought Continues, Yankees Knock Out Guardians In A.L.D.S. Game 5, 5-1

Cleveland hasn't won the World Series since 1948 and they made this October really special, but unfortunately they fell one game short of an A.L.C.S. appearance in Houston.

Author:
Brendan Gulick
Oct 18, 2022 7:19 PM EDT

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Cleveland Guardians

The 2022 magical season for the Cleveland Guardians has finally ended. In the fifth and decisive game in the American League Division Series, the New York Yankees knocked Cleveland out of World Series contention with a 5-1 win.

Perhaps the outcome would have been different if they played Game 5 last night, but maybe not. At this point, that will just become another part of Cleveland's offseason conversation after they led the Yankees 2 games to 1.

Unfortunately, the Guardians basically played from behind from the outset on Tuesday afternoon. As is turned out, this was the only game in the series that didn't feel all that close.

It was an awfully tough afternoon for Aaron Civale, who spoke yesterday about how excited he was for the opportunity to pitch in a game of this magnitude. Lots of fans wanted to see Shane Bieber pitch today on short rest, just as Nestor Cortes was doing. But Terry Francona was steadfast in saying that he and pitching coach Carl Willis really felt it was the right thing to do to give Civale the ball.

Civale walked Gleyber Torres, struck out Aaron Judge, hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch and then gave up a 3-run homer to Giancarlo Stanton. He was abruptly pulled from the game.

Judge added a solo home run in the second inning to take a 4-0 lead and remove much of the drama from Game 5. The Guardians had a few chances again on Tuesday to post crooked numbers on the scoreboard, but they just couldn't come up with a timely hit.

It feels odd to acknowledge that the team didn't come up with many clutch hits this postseason, considering Oscar Gonzalez alone was a wrecking ball. He had three go-ahead hits in seven playoff games, including the series-winning walk-off homer against Tampa Bay and a walk-off single in Game 3 of the A.L.D.S. against New York.

But the Guardians finished the post-season batting just 12-for-50 with runners in scoring position across the seven games and they only had 3 multi-run innings across 69 total frames in these two series.

That includes Game 3 vs. NY when the team went 9-for-17 with runners in scoring position. Certainly, the high quality pitchers they faced had a lot to do with that ... but it's still frustrating.

Tuesday's only run came home on a Jose Ramirez sacrifice fly to straight-away center field with the bases loaded and one out in the third inning.

In many ways, the series went as advertised. The Yankees never had more than six hits in a game, but they hit nine total home runs and each one of them felt critically important (most weren't solo shots).

We have lots more to come on Cleveland Baseball Insider as we put a bow on a terrific 2022 season.

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