New York Yankees Set to Face Guardians in ALCS

The New York Yankees will face the Cleveland Guardians franchise for the seventh time in the American League playoffs.

Aug 20, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge (99) celebrates after his solo home run during the first inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

The New York Yankees will have to create some Cleveland frowns if they are to advance to their first World Series in 15 years.

With a 7-3 victory in Game 5 of the remaining American League Division Series on Saturday afternoon, the Cleveland Guardians beat out the Detroit Tigers for the right to face the Yankees in the Championship Series that gets underway on Monday in The Bronx (7:37 p.m. ET, TBS/TruTV).

In Saturday's clincher, Cleveland mustered five runs off Detroit ace Tarik Skubal (L, 1-1), all but one coming on Lane Thomas' fifth inning grand slam to create a permanent lead. Thomas later drove in another run on an infield single in the seventh after the Tigers had sliced the lead in half in the prior two frames.

The Yankees are now set for their seventh postseason meeting with the Cleveland baseball franchise and second under the Guardians moniker after taking the 2022 ALDS in five games. Cleveland, 2-4 against the Yankees in the prior six series, will become the Yankees' most common American League playoff foe with this seventh meeting, breaking a tie with the Minnesota Twins. The Guardians are also now tied as the Yankees' second-most common postseason opponent of all time, working alongside the San Francisco Giants.

This will be the second ALCS matchup between New York and Cleveland after the former prevailed in six games en route to its 24th World Series title run in 1998. The then-Indians took a surprising 2-1 lead on the Bronx Bombers before dropping the last three, beginning with an Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez masterpiece in Game 4.

The Yankees took four of the six meetings with Cleveland this year, taking two parts of separate trios at Yankee Stadium and Progressive Field. The first began by sweeping a doubleheader back on Apr. 13 in Cleveland before they won the latter two games on Aug. 21-22 in The Bronx by a combined 14-1 tally.

Per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, the Yankees have not named a starter for Monday's opener but Gerrit Cole (1-0, 3.00 ERA this postseason) is expected to toe the rubber for Game 2 on Tuesday. Cole started the most recent showdown against the Guardians this year on Aug. 22, throwing six shutout innings of one-hit ball despite walking five in a 6-0 win.