MLB storylines to watch for ALCS Game 1 and NLCS Game 2

You know what’s a pretty great way to greet the new work week? With two LCS games!

On Monday, we’ll be going coast to coast, with the Dodgers kicking off Game 2 of their NLCS matchup with the Mets in Los Angeles before we pan our eyes all the way across the country for the opener of the Yankees-Guardians ALCS in the Bronx. Don’t let the fact that these series are just getting started make you think these games are any less important than the ones that come later. In a week, we may well all realize each of these series made their pivotal turns in Game 1.

Here is the biggest storyline for each of the four teams playing on Monday.

ALCS Game 1: Guardians at Yankees
7:38 p.m. ET, TBS
SP: Alex Cobb (CLE) vs. Carlos Rodón (NYY)

Guardians: Is ‘Guards Ball’ potential kryptonite for the Yankees?
If you just look at how they match up, position by position, the Guardians are not going to come out ahead of the Yankees. Cleveland has one star, José Ramírez, and a whole bunch of complementary players. The thing about those complementary players, though, is that they slot in quite nicely in a platoon. That allows rookie manager Stephen Vogt all sorts of options when playing a team like the Yankees, which tends to deploy a traditional, top-heavy rotation and lineup.

New York is not a team built for the sort of “pitching chaos” the Tigers used against the Guardians in the ALDS, which it should be said, actually did cause Cleveland some trouble. Detroit could mix and match just like them. The Yankees, on the other hand, have their guys, and they’re sticking with them. The Guardians, thus, will have a very different lineup against Rodón in Game 1 than they will against Gerrit Cole in Game 2, with an opportunity for someone like ALDS hero David Fry (.996 OPS vs. LHP this season) to do damage. That flexibility is something that may serve Cleveland quite well this whole series.

And Cleveland’s bullpen is even more versatile, not to mention more dominant. Guards Ball means coming at you from all sorts of different directions. That could cause the Yankees more trouble than many might think — starting with Game 1.

Yankees: Seriously, when is Aaron Judge going to get going?
Derek Jeter had his Mr. November homer. Reggie Jackson had his three-homer game. Heck, do you even remember how great Alex Rodriguez was in the 2009 postseason? (19-for-52, .365 average, five doubles, six homers, 18 RBIs, 12 walks, in case you forgot.) The point is, if you’re going to reach theoretical (and possibly not-real-at-all!) True Yankee status, or at least whatever A-Rod ended up at in the Bronx, you need yourself some postseason moments.

Judge, as we repeat constantly, may have just had the best season by a right-handed hitter ever. But not only is he lacking that sort of memorable postseason moment, his postseason numbers are so far below his career numbers they look like they’ve come from a different guy entirely. In 48 career playoff games — that’s nearly a third of a whole season! — Judge has put up a .207/.316/.446 slash line. This year, he is 2-for-13, after going 1-for-16 in the ALCS loss to the Astros two years ago.

We have seen Judge struggle in the past, and he ends up locking into place and turning, on a dime, into the monster we all know and love. That Judge can carry a team for an entire series, or even an entire month. The Yankees have made it this far without getting anything from Judge. They won’t make it much further if they don’t start getting it soon.

NLCS Game 2: Mets at Dodgers (LAD up 1-0)
4:08 p.m. ET, FOX and FS1
SP: Sean Manaea (NYM) vs. TBA (LAD)

Mets: Can they stop their heads from spinning?
The Mets didn’t expect to get too many innings from Kodai Senga in Game 1; the guy had thrown 7 1/3 Major League innings all season up to this point, after all. But it’s fair to say that they were hoping it would take fewer than three pitchers to get their first seven outs … and that they wouldn’t be down 6-0 before they got their first hit.

The Mets had been on such a roll. Over a 10-day stretch, they clinched a playoff spot during a makeup doubleheader in Atlanta, won a winner-take-all Wild Card Series Game 3 in Milwaukee and took out the rival Phillies in an NLDS upset. But the three days they got to rest before the NLCS almost made them seem like Wile E. Coyote finally having a chance to look down and realizing he’s floating in the air above a canyon.

The Mets were knocked around so fast in Game 1 that you wonder if they’re finally realizing how truly crazy this run has been for them. That being said, all they could hope for from a two-game set at Dodger Stadium was a split, and no matter how bad Game 1 was, it was, after all, just one game and just one loss. These Mets are in for a fight in this series, but they’ve been in tougher spots before. It’s time for them to get settled, and get down to it.

Dodgers: Can this sensational pitching run possibly continue?
You might have heard that the Dodgers pitching hasn’t allowed a run in … a while. Thirty-three innings, to be precise. In fact, if they keep the Mets off the board in the top of the first in Game 2, they will pass the 1966 Orioles for sole possession of the single-postseason record.

But one hopes the Dodgers aren’t getting too smirky about the happy advantage they had against the Mets in Game 1, with Jack Flaherty going up against a patchwork mound crew, because the tables are going to turn for the next two games. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto having pitched Game 5 of the NLDS on Friday, it’s going to be quite the challenge for manager Dave Roberts to piece things together until then.

Flaherty’s seven strong innings certainly helps and allows Roberts to go with a bullpen game on Monday, ahead of Tuesday’s travel day, thereby saving Walker Buehler (who has been shaky all year) for Game 3. The Dodgers bullpen has been excellent in this postseason, and it’s not like the Mets are knocking the cover off the ball right now, but this is quite the weight to carry. Can they keep it going and make some more history?