Clarke Schmidt will start today’s Game Three in Cleveland
The Yankees are up 2–0 in the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians after winning Game One 5–2 and then winning Game Three 6–3.
A positive offensively from Game Two was that Aaron Judge hit a two run home run for his first home in this year’s playoffs. The slugger, who had 58 homers and 144 RBI and will be the AL MVP, had a homer and three RBI on Tuesday after having zero homers and one RBI in the first five games of the playoffs.
Another positive offensively was that Gleyber Torres went 3–5 with two runs scored. He has been very good as the leadoff hitter in the playoffs since he is 7–24 (.292) with a .433 OBP, one homer, seven runs scored and three RBI in the six games.
A negative from the game was that two runners — Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Rizzo — were tagged out on the bases in the same inning. Another negative was that the Yankees went 2–10 with runners in scoring position and are now 8–52 in the six games with runners in scoring position in the playoffs. They will increase their chance of winning Game Three if they can improve their success rate with runners in scoring position.
Clarke Schmidt will get his second start of the playoffs tonight in Cleveland. Schmidt pitched Game Three of the ALDS and allowed two earned runs with four hits and a walk in 4.2 innings pitched against the Royals. His Game Three start was better than Gerrit Cole’s start in Game One and it was better than Carlos Rodon’s start in Game Two of the ALDS. Schmidt did not allow a run and allowed just one hit in the first four innings and then he got worse in the fifth inning when he allowed three hits including an RBI double and then an RBI triple.
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Aaron Boone should be ready to take Schmidt out after four or five innings. Schmidt pitched very well when not on the injured list in the regular season since in his 16 starts he had a 2.85 ERA with a 1.18 WHIP and 93 strikeouts in 85.1 innings pitched. This was a big improvement from the 2023 season when he had a 4.64 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP in his 32 starts. This season Schmidt allowed two runs or less in 11 of his 16 starts after allowing two runs or less in just 17 of his 32 starts in 2023.
Schmidt is a very confident pitcher who works fast on the mound. He relies primarily on his cutter (average 93 mph), slider (average 85 mph) and his sinker (95 mph) while also mixing in a curveball. Schmidt was drafted in the first round in 2017 out of University of South Carolina and made his debut with the Yankees during the 2020 season. He pitched in 12.2 innings combined between the 2020 and 2021 seasons and then was a primarily a relief pitcher in 2022 and then was starting pitcher in 2023, which was his role in the minors and in college.
In Schmidt’s only start against the Guardians this season, all the way back on April 13, he allowed just one earned run (two overall) in five innings while walking five, allowing just three hits and striking out seven. It makes sense having him pitch in Cleveland since he had a 1.39 ERA in eight starts in away games but a much higher 4.50 ERA in eight starts at home.
The Yankees changed up the lineup for tonight’s Game Three with Jon Berti playing first base and batting sixth and Jose Trevino getting the start at catcher and batting ninth. Austin Wells had been the catcher for the first six games of the playoffs and he was 2–24 with 10 strikeouts and just two walks in those six games. Trevino is an elite framer who plays good defense behind the plate and had three walks on August 20 against Matthew Boyd, who is tonight’s starting pitcher for Cleveland.
It is a little surprising that Anthony Rizzo is not starting tonight at first base. Rizzo missed the ALDS because he fractured two fingers when he was hit by a pitch in the second to last game of the regular season. However, in his last eight games of the regular season, he went 10–26 (.385) with two doubles and four RBI and in the first two games of the ALCS he went 3–7 with a run scored, a double and a walk.
The Yankees made the change to take Rizzo and Wells out of the lineup with a lefty on the mound. Giancarlo Stanton moved up to the clean spot for this game after previously hitting one spot lower. Wells had continued to stay in the clean up spot since Aaron Boone wanted to keep his lineup balanced between left-handed and right-handed bats. Going back all the way to September 13, Wells was just 4–65 in 19 games, so it makes sense taking him out of the lineup for multiple reasons.
