3 concerns for the Cleveland Guardians heading into the ALDS

The Guardians’ lack of power will be a topic of discussion and comparison no matter who they play for the rest of the playoffs. While they scored all three of their runs in the wild-card round by way of home run, this presents two concerns. First, that stat is more of a reflection on how little offense they produced against the Rays, scoring just three runs in 24 innings. And second, that is not how they have won games all season, having won more games without hitting a home run than any other team in MLB.

Now, Cleveland faces a Yankees lineup that scored 141 more runs than the Rays. It doesn’t seem likely that the Yankees will be held to just one run in any game, let alone across 24 innings. For the Guardians to win this series, they will need to get back to stringing hits together and scratching runs across. Without doing that, no amount of momentum will carry them into the ALCS.