Breaking down both the AL and NL Championship Series
Photo credit: © Denny Medley-Imagn Images
Oct 13, 2024, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 13, 2024, 10:11 EDT
For once this October, a few teams finally proved that the rest period isn’t a detriment in a playoff run. While the Philadelphia Phillies may have fallen short following their bye, the Cleveland Guardians, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Yankees have successfully defeated their Wild Card round winners and are –somewhat – cruising through to the Championship series.
Here’s how each team match up for the penultimate round of the playoffs before earning the spot for the coveted World Series:
Cleveland Guardians (2) vs New York Yankees (1)
Pitching
Based on this playoff performance alone, the New York Yankees’ pitching performed slightly better than the Cleveland Guardians’ pitching, even if it was a razor-thin margin. However, if we observe the regular season statistics, the Guardians’ pitching staff ranked second in the American League, while the Yankees came in fifth.
New York’s pitching staff hasn’t exactly been perfect throughout the 2024 season. Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt all have undergone their ordeals. But so far, most of the starting rotation has come through when they needed to against the Kansas City Royals. The same goes for New York’s bullpen. When regular closer Clay Holmes struggled during the regular season, Luke Weaver stepped up to fill in the hole and sometimes, Tommy Kahnle also came in to get the save and win the team needed. For New York, it was all about the right people and, sometimes, unexpected people coming in clutch.
Cleveland, on the other hand, didn’t have much woes in their pitching from the big-picture perspective throughout the regular season. In fact, pitching was one of the main drivers that helped the team establish dominance and eventually secure the division lead.
The Guardians’ starting rotation of Tanner Bibee, Matthew Boyd, and Alex Cobb has managed to silence the Detroit Tigers’ bats for the division series. The bullpen has had some shaky moments but star relievers like Emmanuel Clase, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, and Cade Smith have also been lights out and have prevented runs when the team needed the most. After all, this was an elite bullpen even during the regular season, and that wouldn’t crumble out of the blue in October.
Starting pitching-wise, New York has more staff to put out compared to Cleveland and, therefore, has more innings eaters in that sense. However, the Guardians have a definite edge when it comes to relief pitching with several flame throwers who are ready to stifle the opponents’ offence.
This will be a fascinating series to keep an eye out and it’ll all come down to how long each starter can last and how each bullpen is able to support or either save the starting rotation.
Offence
On paper, this is an extremely lopsided match-up. The Yankees have a clear upper hand in offence with impactful players like Jazz Chisholm Jr., Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton. Yet, Judge has underperformed thus far for New York while Soto and Stanton have stepped up along with other rather unexpected players like Gleyber Torres during the division series against Kansas City.
The Yankees’ offence overall has performed slightly better than the Guardians but they have certainly outperformed Cleveland for 162 games. New York’s offence slashed a .248 batting average (BA), .333 on-base percentage (OBP), .428 slugging (SLG) and .761 on-base plus slugging (OPS). That’s compared to the Guardians’ .238 BA, .307 OBP, .395 SLG and .703 OPS. They are comparably similar but it’s evident that the Yankees have more firepower they can rely on, generally speaking.
Even though the Guardians’ offence is quite lacklustre compared to the Yankees, they have stellar performers who have stepped up. David Fry, Steve Kwan, Josh Naylor and Lane Thomas have provided the bats for the team in the division series when José Ramírez couldn’t be the offensive pillar the team needed. That’s not to say that Ramírez is a write-off – he still has the chance to live up to his full potential as one of the most underrated bats in the league.
The two teams’ offensive style is also more or less different from one another. Cleveland added more power to its lineup but is still reliant on getting on base. In contrast, New York depends on explosive power to deliver an emphatic moment.
In the end, it will be all about which style prevails and which lineup takes a step forward more than the other. Will it be the scrappy Guardians or the potent Yankees? Only time and endurance will tell.
Oct 11, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez (37) celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the seventh inning against the San Diego Padres during game five of the NLDS for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
New York Mets (6) vs Los Angeles Dodgers (1)
Pitching
There is no question that Los Angeles’ pitching has been decimated with injuries long before the playoffs began. And yet, this team found ways to win more games during the regular season and even won the division. To Los Angeles’ relief, starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto returned to the roster just as the playoffs started and has played a key role in coming out on top of the San Diego Padres during the division series.
Their pitching rode on thin ice as they relied on rather volatile starters like Walker Buehler, Jack Flaherty, Michael Grove and Landon Knack, along with Yamamoto, but so far, they haven’t become the biggest obstacle for the team in getting to the next stage of the playoffs. They may have had their ugly moments against the Padres, but they didn’t completely fall off the cliff, either.
The Dodgers bullpen has been wobbly at times but by and large, this group of relief pitchers have delivered. Pitchers like Ryan Braiser, Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen have proven to be essential for the team and have defied their doom. After all, pitching was supposed to be a strength for this team, including relievers, and Los Angeles has finally been shining at the right time.
However, that’s not to say that the New York Mets have been faultless in their pitching either. The starting rotation of Sean Manaea, Tylor Megill, Jose Quintana, David Peterson and Luis Severino hasn’t exactly been known for being elite of the elites. Yes, they have all exceeded expectations during the regular season and even during the playoffs thus far, but they aren’t the names that come up in people’s minds like Gerrit Cole. Besides, Kodai Senga has just returned to the rotation and hasn’t been able to throw as many pitches due to his health conditions.
The Mets’ relief pitchers actually have some notable names like Edwin Diaz, Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek but the core isn’t known for having lights-out stuff like the Guardians. They weren’t supposed to be the best of anything but this relief core has managed to offer the shutdown experience when necessary through all stages of playoffs. This is also a large part of what got the Mets to the bigger playoff stage.
At this stage, it’ll be all about which pitching gives in first to the pressure and exhaustion. Whether the Dodgers fall apart or the Mets’ vibe begins to fade away, it will be a compelling pitching match-up to keep an eye out for.
Offence
This will certainly be one of the more interesting offensive match-ups throughout the playoffs. The Mets have been unlikely heroes, while the Dodgers have wielded their dominance with their lineup and rehabilitated their reputation.
Both teams have flaunted their respective powers throughout October so far. The Mets had Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, and Brandon Nimmo step up, along with others in the lineup. The Dodgers had Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani but unexpected contributors like Enrique (Kike) Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez have taken a massive step forward at the same time.
Los Angeles clobbered nine home runs and New York clubbed eight home runs. Their power has been pretty much equal so far but that can easily change in a series that could have up to seven games maximum.
Another intriguing part about this series is that the Mets seem to have outperformed the Dodgers in runs-batted-in (RBI) with 38 RBIs, while the Dodgers have 22. New York also has more hits with 56 and Los Angeles recorded 37. That said, it’s also important to factor in the fact that the Dodgers were richly rewarded with a five days’ rest as the National League West division winner while the Mets clawed their way up, starting with the Wild Card series.
These playoff statistics may be skewed toward New York’s favour for now, and the Championship series will offer the Mets a chance to prove that they can be superior to Los Angeles in their lineup execution, even with relatively unknown players.
Technically speaking, the Dodgers have ranked third in the National League in offence and the Mets came in seventh. There is no question that Los Angeles has higher expectations to meet in this upcoming series. In that sense, New York can easily come in with a gut punch to demonstrate that having superstars in the lineup may not mean as much when there is an underdog who can present challenges.
This offensive showdown will all come down to which team is able to execute more timely hits when it matters the most. Both have proven that they are capable of coming in clutch and it’ll all be a matter of who has the most well-rounded clutch lineup at least for this five, six or seven-game series.