October 17, 2022, 6:25PM
Matthew Tallarini, Chief Correspondent, WORLD BASEBALL NETWORK
Tonight’s game between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians will be one of the most pivotal matchups of this season in all of baseball. Aaron Civale takes the ball for the Cleveland Guardians while the New York Yankees will go with Jameson Taillon for Game 5 of the American League Division Series. The Yankees will hope that Taillon can go a chunk of innings tonight to give the bullpen some room to work in order to come out on top. Yankees offense put up some quality key hits during Game 4 to position themselves for tonight. Anthony Rizzo, Harrison Bader and Oswaldo Cabrera played big parts in the Yankees 4-2 win. Could the Yankees prevail tonight and keep their season alive, if so they will face the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. Aaron Boone has mentioned that all arms will be ready to go tonight including Gerrit Cole who threw 110 pitches the night before.
Cleveland’s offense has had a great run during the course of the postseason. Jose Ramirez is batting .333 during the postseason. Will he be a big spark for the Guardians offense tonight against Taillon? Up and down the order for the Guardians, Gabriel Arias, Oscar Gonzalez and Josh Naylor have all contributed to Cleveland’s success during the series against the Yankees. Oscar Gonzalez coming into the series has had many key at bats for the Guardians including the go ahead single in Game 2 at Yankee Stadium helping Cleveland get back to Progressive Field for Game 3 with a win under their belts. Gonzalez captured the game winning single in Game 3 over Yankees reliever Clarke Schmidt a few nights ago positioning Cleveland for a crucial Game 4 in front of their home crowd. They lost game 4 to the Yanks 4-2. Manager Terry Francona will use all of his baseball acumen in tonight’s game Game 5. Focused on stopping the Yankees offense during the crucial Game 5 matchup at Yankee Stadium.