The Indians will take on the New York Yankees in their first playoff series beginning Thursday night at Progressive Field. New York won the wildcard game last night against the Minnesota Twins.
WKSU commentator says one of the more interesting things to come out of yesterday was the decision by Indians manager Terry Francona to start pitcher Trevor Bauer in game one tomorrow, instead of ace Corey Kluber.
鈥淚t will be curious to see how Bauer reacts in that,鈥� Pluto said. 鈥淟ast year, he was iffy in a couple playoff starts.鈥�
Game 1 is key
There鈥檚 a lot riding on that first game.
鈥淭he team that wins the first game in a five-game series wins something like 75 percent of the time for the whole series,鈥� Pluto said.
The Indians came out of the regular season with 102 wins and haven鈥檛 had two consecutive losses since August.
鈥淥nce in a while, when a team has a sensational regular season, they have this sense like, 鈥榃e can鈥檛 blip it now. We鈥檝e been so good for six months,鈥欌�� Pluto said.
Does the Indians鈥� regular season performance matter now in the playoffs?
鈥淚t gives you the home field, but no, it doesn鈥檛,鈥� Pluto said.
Indians broadcaster Tom Hamilton told Pluto it鈥檚 kind of like March Madness.
鈥淪uddenly, you could have a couple of bad days and it鈥檚 over,鈥� Pluto said.
The Yankees are a great team, according to Pluto, though 鈥渢hey weren鈥檛 supposed to be quite as good this year as in the past. They鈥檙e a team that can get very hot.鈥�
Pluto would鈥檝e rather seen the Indians play the Twins than the Yankees, but he said the Indians are clearly the better team.
鈥淲hen the Indians finally win another world series, you can be sure it won鈥檛 be easy.鈥�
Copyright 2021 WKSU. To see more, visit . 9(MDA5NTM4MTIyMDE0MTg3NDc2MTVlZjdmNQ001))
