3 burning questions for the Cleveland Guardians ahead of ALCS Game 3 vs. Yankees

The Cleveland Guardians have their backs against the wall as they fell behind 2-0 in the ALCS against the New York Yankees.

Now the Guardians must win four of five games against the Yankees to advance to the World Series, which is a difficult task.

After all, Cleveland is just 2-6 against New York this year, including the regular season.

So how can the Guardians turn things around?

Here are three burning questions for the club ahead of Game 3 on Thursday night.

When Jose Ramirez came to the plate in the ninth inning on Tuesday night, he had not hit in his first seven at-bats in the ALCS. He ended up hitting a home run, but the tying game to bring the Guardians to 6-3 was pretty meaningless. That was the end result in the end.

But will this long ball give Ramirez the go-ahead for the rest of the series?

Ramirez may have had a few struggles in the playoffs, but overall he's hitting just .167/.310/.458 in the 2024 postseason.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new for Ramirez, who has struggled in the playoffs throughout his MLB career (lifetime .659 OPS over 39 playoff games).

Make no mistake: Cleveland needs to highlight its best player for the Guardians to have any chance of returning to this series, especially when it looks like Aaron Judge has finally awakened from his October slumber in New York.

In Game 1, Alex Cobb lasted just 2.2 innings, giving up three earned runs on five hits. To be fair, he stopped due to back spasms, but he wasn't going to last much longer anyway.

Then, in Game 2, staff ace Tanner Bibee's night was even shorter, as he only managed 1.1 frames before being pulled. He allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits.

The fact that Bibee couldn't even produce a quality performance is concerning considering he was the Guardians' top arm all season.

Matthew Boyd will likely be on the mound for Cleveland in Game 3. Can he at least pitch a few innings to give the Guardians bullpen a breather?

It would be nice if Boyd could last five or six innings. If he can do it and keep the game close, Cleveland will have a chance. If he gets subbed early like Cobb and Bibee, it will likely be déjà vu for the Guardians.

Cleveland's catchers – Bo Naylor and Austin Hedges – went hitless in the playoffs. In fact, none of the backstops have taken a hit since September 25th.

And the last time a Guardians catcher had a multi-hit game? That was over a month ago, on September 9th.

I understand that neither Naylor (.614 OPS) nor Hedges (.422 OPS) are truly offensive warriors, but can either of them just get a base hit? A walk? Anything?

It's getting to the point where the Guardians may have to seriously consider putting David Fry behind the plate and rolling with another designated hitter.

Cleveland simply can't afford to keep giving away outs like this.