In the cheers of the full house of smiling fans, the Indians' ace pitcher Corey Kluber once again stepped onto the mound at Progress Field after the second game of the series.
Although he was forced to retire after only pitching 2.2 innings in Game 2, showing subpar performance, the Yankees, who were determined to make a comeback from a two-game deficit today, dared not underestimate their opponent:
Counting on a Cy Young-caliber pitcher to implode twice in a row, especially after resting for four days without traveling to an away game, is clearly unrealistic — according to statistics, Kluber has only given up more than four runs in four starts this year, and in each subsequent start, he averaged a record of 3 wins, 1 loss, and a 0.90 ERA, suggesting that the chance of overcoming this top-tier pitcher's dominance twice in a row is nearly zero.
