As far as narratives and the imaginary force of momentum go, these two teams could not be coming into this three-game series from more different places.
Cleveland is the hotter, better team overall. They’ve won nine of their last 13 games overall, still have a great pitching staff, and they have José Ramírez. But they enter this series on a three-game skid where nobody has looked quite right. Their ace wasn’t an ace, and the offense couldn’t seem to get anything going beyond the opening game. Maybe it can be attributed to jet lag and playing their first series on the West Coast since 2019.