Cleveland Guardians Prepare for Crucial Game 3 Against New York Yankees

The Cleveland Guardians are gearing up for Game 3 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) against the New York Yankees, with left-hander Boyd slated to start. This announcement came from Guardians manager Stephen Vogt during a pre-game workout at Progressive Field, Cleveland, as reported by ESPN. The game is seen as a must-win for Cleveland after losing the first two games of the series in New York.

Vogt expressed confidence in his team despite the challenging start to the series, highlighting the advantage of playing on home turf. “We’re always confident going into every game,” Vogt stated. “We love playing at home. We love playing in front of our fans. I think for us, knowing we have three games here, we feel really good about it.”

Boyd, aged 33, joined the Guardians as a free agent in July and has displayed a 2-2 record with a 2.72 ERA over eight starts this season. Although Boyd has limited postseason experience, comprising seven innings over ten Major League Baseball seasons, he has maintained a scoreless record during those appearances. “I’ve spent the better parts of nine seasons watching the playoffs from home,” Boyd said, reflecting on his career and his readiness for the opportunity to contribute in the postseason.

Boyd’s counterpart for the Yankees will be right-hander Schmidt, who managed to allow just two runs over 4⅔ innings in New York’s Game 3 victory in the AL Division Series (ALDS). Schmidt also has some experience facing the Guardians, notably during two relief outings in the 2022 ALDS. “Having those experiences and kind of understanding what that environment is like… I think you have a lot of takeaways from there,” Schmidt commented on his previous postseason engagement.

The Guardians hope to counter their performance in the first two games of the current series, which included difficulties such as errors, wild pitches, walks, and a dearth of timely hitting. Nonetheless, Boyd expressed a positive outlook, asserting, “We know what we’re about. Our record speaks for itself. We did it in the regular season. We know what we’re made of. We’re just going to go play our game.”