The Guardians managed to win a tight game in Detroit to send the ALDS back to Cleveland for a winner-take-all.
Let’s take a look at some keys to game five:
1. Guess Right on Skubal’s Pitch Mix
FanGraphs Michael Rosen offered a great article analyzing why Skubal is so effective. To summarize, he has a unique delivery and offers the pitch-tunneling of a crafty lefty with the velocity of Paul Skenes. The Guardians, obviously, will have seen Skubal a mere five days earlier, so they need to rely on recent memory to give them a greater degree of comfort with what the presumptive AL Cy Young winner offers. In all likelihood, they will need to analyze Skubal’s plan of attack in game two and predict…
