The history Yankees vs. Guardians ALDS rivalry

The New York Yankees are set to face the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Division Series after completing a 99-win season and dominating the American League East. The best-of-five ALDS series began on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees defeated the Guardians 4-1 to take the first lead.

Cleveland has the fourth-lowest payroll in the Majors and is also the youngest team in the league. The Guardians made it to the ALDS because they won a division where no other team finished above .500. Their opponents are the formidable Yankees. New York slugger Aaron Judge by himself hit 62 home runs while Guardians, all of them together, only got 127, which is just a little over twice as many.

Coming to the ALDS, the Yankees are the most experienced playoff team. They have also the third highest payroll amounting to $254 million, while Cleveland is 27th, with a payroll of $60 million. But Cleveland has a really interesting team that is getting more and more confident. It is built in a way that we don’t usually see in the playoffs. And after sweeping the Rays in the Wild Card Series, the Guardians see the ALDS in New York as another fun destination to enjoy their wild and unexpected playoff tour.

Here is a look back at the history of both teams as ALDS rivals.

1997 ALDS: Cleveland won 3-2

Game 1

Place: Old Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

Result: Yankees won 8-6

In the sixth, the Yankees won by scoring five runs. Boggs hit a single with one out. Raines, Derek Jeter, and O’Neill all hit home runs in a row pushing New York to an 8–6 ALDS Game 1 lead. The Yankee bullpen would not let that lead go to waste. In the ninth, Mariano Rivera got the save. After losing a five-run lead, Cleveland looked like they had lost hope.

Game 2

Place: Old Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

Result: Cleveland won 7 – 5

The Yankees took a 3–0 lead in the first inning. But in the top of the fifth, David Justice, Sandy Alomar, and Jim Thome all hit RBI singles to tie the game, and then Tony Fernandez hit a two-run double to give Cleveland a 5–3 lead. In the next inning, Matt Williams hit a home run that scored two runs. This made the score 7–3. Even though Derek Jeter hit a home run in the ninth, Cleveland still won the ALDS Game 2.

Game 3

Place: Jacobs Field

Result: Yankees won 6 – 1

Paul O’Neill smashed a grand slam against Chad Ogea to put them up 6-1 and silence the crowd. The rain spoiled a rally by Cleveland, giving the Yankees a 2-1 ALDS series advantage.

Game 4

Place: Jacobs Field

Result: Cleveland won 3 – 2

Dwight Gooden and Orel Hershiser fought for the ALDS glory just before ending their pitching careers. The Yankees kept their opponents scoreless until the bottom of the eighth. But Sandy Alomar Jr. hit a home run to tie the game. Marquis Grissom won the game with a hit that got past Derek Jetter and scored a run in the bottom of the final innings.

Game 5

Place: Jacobs Field

Result: Cleveland won 4 – 3

In the third, the Indians went up 3-0. The score stayed at 4-3 after the Yankees missed several chances to take the lead. Cleveland won the ALDS series.

2007 ALDS: Yankees lost 3-1

Game 1

Place: Jacobs Field

Result: Cleveland won 12 – 3

Johnny Damon hit a home run off of CC Sabathia to start the game. One out later, Martinez hit a home run to make it 6-3, and Lofton’s three hits and four RBI for Cleveland made it 12-3 and win the ALDS Game 1. The win was the first for Cleveland against the Yankees since 2006 and with that, they avoided their ninth consecutive loss.

Game 2

Place: Jacobs Field

Result: Cleveland won 2 – 1

The famous ALDS “bug game” went into extra innings, and Travis Hafner drove in the winning run with a single in the 11th inning against Luiz Vizcaino. In the late innings of the game, a swarm of tiny bugs flew around the mound.

Game 3

Place: Old Yankee Stadium

Result: Yankees won 8 – 4

The Yankees won the ALDS Game 3, which would be their only victory in the whole series. Even though they were down 2-0, they came back to win 8-4.

Game 4

Place: Old Yankee Stadium

Result: Cleveland won 6 – 4

Victor Martnez’s two-run single was the turning point in the ALDS series. With this loss, the Yankees were eliminated from a postseason series at home for the third time in five years after 2003 and 2004. This was the last playoff game ever played at the old Yankee Stadium, and Joe Torre’s last game as Yankees manager.

2017 ALDS: Yankees won 3-2

This was the third time these two teams met in the ALDS. Cleveland had won the two previous ALDS series between these two teams. This was only the seventh time since 1995 that a team has come back from being down 2-0 in a division series. The Yankees did this before, in 2001 when they beat the Oakland Athletics. They are also only the second team, after the Boston Red Sox, to do it twice in the Division Series.

Game 1

Place: Progressive Field

Result: Cleveland won 4 – 0

Jay Bruce hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning pushing Cleveland 3–0 ahead in Game 1. The last run of the game was scored by José Ramrez, and his team won 4–0 to take a 1-0 lead in the ALDS series.

Game 2

Place: Progressive Field

Result: Cleveland won 9 – 8

The Yankees were ahead 6–3 after Aaron Hicks hit a three-run home run. But Cleveland got within one run when Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam. In the bottom of the eighth, Jay Bruce hit a home run to tie the game, and Austin Jackson hit a walk-off single to win the ALDS game. This was Cleveland’s last playoff win as the Indians. In 2018 and 2020, they lost all of their games, so they changed their name to the Guardians.

Game 3

Place: Yankee Stadium

Result: Yankees won 1 – 0

Masahiro Tanaka did a great job on the mound. He used his splitter to hold Cleveland’s batters for seven scoreless innings. In the top of the sixth, Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge stopped Francisco Lindor from hitting a two-run home run. This kept the game tied. Greg Bird hit a home run that led to the game’s only run. In the eighth and ninth innings, Cleveland had chances to score, but relievers David Robertson and Aroldis Chapman stopped the Yankees from losing and kept their ALDS hopes alive.

Game 4

Place: Yankee Stadium

Result: Yankees won 7 – 3

Cleveland gave up seven runs. The Yankees took advantage of their four mistakes to tie the ALDS series and forced a decisive fifth game to be played. Tommy Kahnle saved the game for a tired bullpen.

Game 5

Place: Progressive Field

Result: Yankees won 5 – 2

Didi Gregorius, the shortstop for the Yankees, hit two-run home runs in the first and third innings, giving the Yankees a 3–0 lead. The Yankees won the ALDS when Chapman got Jackson out.

Can the Yankees repeat their ALDS 2017 success against the Guardians this time?

(Originally published on October 11 and updated on October 13. Currently, the Yankees are playing Cleveland in the 2022 ALDS and leading 1-0 after Game 1.)