The Cleveland Guardians were not able to continue their cinderella season as they lost Game 5 to the New York Yankees.
All year long the Cleveland Guardians found success with getting on base and coming through at just the right time. That was not the case Tuesday night against the Yankees. Cleveland was able to outhit the Yankees 8-6, but their one walk compared to New York’s four gave the home team a 10-9 advantage in the on base department. This would ultimately contribute to the 5-1 final score which saw the Guardians season end.
While both teams would leave the same amount of runners on base (8), the game would come down to which team would come through with runners in scoring position. Unfortunately for the Guardians it was the Yankees who held the advantage in this area. New York went 2-7 with RISP while Cleveland was hitless in six attempts. Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo were the two Yankee hitters who were successful with men in scoring position with the former’s three-run homer in the 1st inning essentially putting the game out of reach for Cleveland.
Aaron Civale was Cleveland’s starter and it did not go as planned. Civale allowed the homer to Stanton mentioned previously and failed to get out of the 1st inning. While there will be a lot of handwringing over the decision the fact of the matter is the bats did not do enough. Scoring just one run was never going to beat a Yankees team that can simply out-slug their opponent with ease.
Looking at the big picture this season was a success even though their postseason run has come to an end. The Guardians have a bright future ahead of them and a couple more additions to the roster can make the difference from their season ending in the ALDS and winning a World Series.
