Stephen Vogt Has Honest Admission About Loss To Yankees In ALCS

The 2024 Cleveland Guardians were one of the most pleasant surprises in all of baseball last season.

Led by their stellar pitching and disciplined hitting, they reached the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.

Unfortunately, their bats went ice-cold at the worst possible time.

Outside of a two-run walk-off home run by David Fry, they didn’t get much going vs. the Bronx Bombers.

Now, months after that disappointing series, manager Stephen Vogt opened up on how emotional everybody was after the loss:

“We all cried that night,” Vogt admitted. “Because we worked for eight months to get to that point, and you know you’re capable of winning it all.”

The Yankees triumphed over the Guardians with a 4-1 series win, during which the Guardians scored 2, 3, 7, 6, and 2 runs, losing two out of three at Progressive Field.

Notably, there are reasons to be concerned about the offense this time as well.

While the Guardians have strong plate discipline and rarely strike out, home runs and extra-base hits are also hard to come by at times.

Outside of Jose Ramirez and maybe even Carlos Santana, this lineup doesn’t feature a lot of power.

David Fry will also miss the first third of the season.

Fortunately, they added a promising pitcher in Luis L. Ortiz, and with Shane Bieber back to full strength, this team should maintain a strong rotation.

Hopefully, they haven’t forgotten their sad and frustrating feelings after losing to the Yankees.

That’s the kind of motivation and catalyst that often propels teams to the next level, and they’ve already shown that they can compete with the best of them under Vogt’s guidance.