Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Writer Oct 16, 2024, 4:21pm ET
CloseSports Reporter, Kansas City Star, 2002-09 Writer, Baseball, Contributing Writer for Baseball Prospectus, Member, Professional Baseball Prospectus, Member, Baseball Writers Association of America, Professional Basketball Writers Association
CLEVELAND — Left-hander Matthew Boyd will start for the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 of the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees on Thursday.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt made the announcement prior to the team’s practice at Progressive Field, a day before a must-win game was set up for Cleveland.
The Yankees won both games in New York to start the Series, but Vogt said he was confident his team was ready to respond.
“We are always confident going into every game,” Vogt said. “We love playing at home. We love playing in front of our home fans. I think for us, knowing that we have three games here, we feel good about it.”
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Boyd, 33, signed as a free agent with Cleveland in late July and went 2-2 with a 2.72 ERA over eight starts. The veteran has limited postseason experience — seven outings over 10 big league seasons — but has yet to score during those frames.
“I’ve spent the better parts of nine seasons watching the playoffs from home,” Boyd said. “I also spent one year in Seattle [where he pitched in the postseason, in 2022]. “It’s one of those things where you say, ‘Man, I know the time will come for me to do this.'”
Boyd started two games for Cleveland during the AL Division Series win against the Detroit Tigers, throwing 6⅔ innings with 10 strikeouts. He will face New York right fielder Clark Schmidt, who was previously announced as the Yankees’ starter, in Thursday’s game.
Schmidt allowed two runs over 4⅔ innings in New York’s Game 3 ALDS win against the Kansas City Royals. His first postseason experience came in two relief outings against the Guardians in the 2022 ALDS Series. One of those appearances was at Progressive Field, when he allowed a run and three hits in his half-inning.
At the very least, Schmidt knows what to expect.
“After those experiences and kind of understanding what that environment was like, especially in that situation that I was in, at the end of the game, I think that was probably the toughest part of the game,” Schmidt said. “I think you have a lot of lessons learned from that, and I learned a lot from that and was able to take bits and pieces from that and try to tweak my game.”
The first two games of the series were poor, especially for Cleveland, which was plagued by errors, wild pitches, walks, and a lack of production with runners on base. Although this is not what the Guardian was hoping for on such a big stage, Boyd says his team remains steadfast.
“We know what we’re getting into,” Boyd said. “Our record speaks for itself. We did it in the regular season. We know what we’re made of. We’re going to go play our game.”
