The Cleveland Guardians survived a tough ALDS matchup with their AL Central rivals as the Detroit Tigers pushed them to five games before the Guardians found a way to finally get to likely AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in Game 5 and tag him for five runs en route to a 7-3 victory.
Cleveland will now head on to the ALCS for the first time since 2016 and take on the New York Yankees for a spot in the World Series, but before that, Stephen Vogt had a strong message for the team following the Game 5 victory.
The Guardians shared a clip of the postgame locker room celebration on X and Vogt said with his whole team huddled around him ready to pop bottles, “I am so proud of this group. Back against the wall. Never out of it. We answer, and then we shut them down. We still got work to do, let’s freakin’ go!”
More work to do, but let's have some fun first.#ForTheLand | #GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/Ir0LvD5YTd
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) October 12, 2024
Cleveland was on the ropes and being completely eviscerated by Skubal once again before Lane Thomas finally delivered a big blow and got to the ace for a grand slam in the fifth inning of Game 5.
The Guardians have their work cut out for them in the ALCS with New York, a team they went 2-4 against in the regular season, but they have the pitching to match up with anybody if they can just keep the offense cooking.
Cleveland was able to overcome back-to-back scoreless performances in Games 2-3 against Detroit, but the Yankees won’t be as forgiving.
If the offense gets that cold again, the season could be over, but for now, the only thing that’s cold is the champagne.
NEXT: Schedule For The Guardians - Yankees AL Championship Series Is Out
