Baseball: A Two-Way Player

Chapter 711 38: The Champion's Obsession (Part 2)

When Gary Sanchez was rendered speechless by Aaron Judge, Lin Guanglai spoke up: "Aaron, stop teasing Gary—besides, if I remember right, aren't you a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan yourself?"

"Oh right, Aaron, what right do you, a Giants fan, have to speak to me like this?" Gary Sanchez, who was in a sudden realization, quickly seized the opportunity to counter Aaron Judge.

Seeing Aaron Judge unable to respond, Gary Sanchez felt a sense of satisfaction, and he pulled Lin Guanglai over, wrapped his arm around his neck, and patted him several times: "Lin, you really are my good partner—don't worry, next time you pitch, I definitely won't let any ball slip past…"

Before he could finish, Lin Guanglai's soft voice came from his mouth: "Forget it, Gary, don't put yourself through it—trusting you not to let any balls slip past is harder than trusting the Indians' pitching team to strike out Aaron completely!"

"Hey! Lin, can't you wish me a little good luck?" Aaron Judge immediately expressed his displeasure upon hearing the conversation—the morale of the Yankees players had already reached its peak after winning the wildcard game cleanly; cheers and laughter echoed as they moved towards the visiting team's locker room at Progress Field, the atmosphere was relaxed.

"It looks like everyone's mindset is quite good, not intimidated by the challenge of the AL regular season champions." Girardi walked behind, looking at his chatting and laughing players, and made this comment to the coaching staff members beside him, which gained their agreement.

"However…" As the pitching coach, Larry Rothschild voiced his concerns: "Our rest time is still too short, after playing against the Twins, we only had one travel day today to fly from New York to Cleveland, and we have a game tomorrow night, Sevy's form tends to fluctuate, I'm worried…"

"I understand what you mean, Larry." Girardi listened to Rothschild's feedback, nodding continuously to indicate his agreement, "But don't forget about the goals we set earlier—we didn't come to Cleveland this time expecting to bring back 2 wins. Whether it's Kluber or Carrasco, neither is easy to deal with; winning one game would be satisfying for me… choosing Sevy to start today is mainly because, besides Lin, he's the only one in our lineup who can match Kluber's intensity as a pitcher."

"In this game today, my idea is to compete with the opponent on bullpen depth: as long as Sevy can hold up for 5 innings, we have a good chance to take down the opponent with our bullpen depth; if he can't last five innings, then we'll see based on the situation, how to handle the Indians' second starter Carrasco is what we should focus on most."

After hearing Girardi's explanation, Larry Rothschild nodded understandingly, "Got it, I'll strictly monitor Sevy's state today and tomorrow, and also Gerrit, we will need him to step up in the second game against the Indians."

However, when the Yankees and Indians' starting lineup for the first game was freshly revealed, Joe Girardi and his coaching team were all stunned:

In the Yankees' original plan, resting and waiting in ambush, the Indians would go all out to win at their first home game of the series, and the starting pitcher selection other than their ace Corey Kluber was impossible.

Yet, not only was Corey Kluber not taking the field, but today's starting pitcher wasn't even the Indians' second starter Carlos Carrasco, but rather a name completely unexpected—

Trevor Bauer, the 26-year-old starting pitcher who has been playing the role of the third or fourth starter in the Indians' team, although he secured 17 wins this season, second only to Kluber in the team; both a 4.19 ERA and 1.37 WHIP indicate he's not a pitcher who can effectively prevent batters from reaching base.

"Could it be Kluber and Carrasco both got injured, and they had to send out the third Bauer to start?" This was Girardi's first reaction upon seeing the starting pitcher choice, but he immediately dismissed this idea: not to mention the chance of both aces simultaneously getting injured is practically zero, how could there be no rumors if a player of Kluber's caliber ran into any pregame issue?

"So, what on earth is Terry Francona scheming this time with his tricks?" Girardi and the coaching team discussed for a long time, but in the end, couldn't figure it out and had to wait until the game started to adjust based on the actual situation.

At 6 p.m. Eastern time, the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians started on time; although today was a Thursday workday, the attendance rate at Progress Field still exceeded 90%, with home Indians fans making up about 70%, and the remaining 30% being Yankees fans in pinstripes.

As the Yankees players predicted, Cleveland Cavaliers' superstar LeBron James also attended the game, his seat directly behind home plate, facing the pitching mound; however, this time, he was greeted not with applause and cheers from Cleveland fans, but with waves of roars and boos—

At Progress Field, the home of the Indians, LeBron, who was born in Ohio, wore a Yankees hat and cheered for the opponent in front of tens of thousands of home fans, which understandably infuriated the Indians fans.