CLEVELAND – Left-hander Matthew Boyd will start for the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 of the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees on Thursday.

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt made the announcement prior to a team practice at Progressive Field, a day before what will be a must-win game for Cleveland.

The Yankees won both games in New York to start the series, but Vogt said he is confident his team is ready to respond.

“We always go into every game with confidence,” Vogt said. “We love playing at home. We love playing in front of our fans. I think knowing we have three games here, we feel really good about it.”

Boyd, 33, signed as a free agent with Cleveland in late July and went 2-2 with a 2.72 ERA over eight starts. The veteran has limited postseason experience — seven innings over 10 big league seasons — but he has yet to be scored on during those frames.

“I watched the playoffs from home for the better part of nine seasons,” Boyd said. “I also spent a year in Seattle (where he pitched in the postseason, in 2022). It’s one of those things where you’re like, ‘Man, I know my time is coming to do that.'”

Boyd started two games for Cleveland in the AL Division Series win against the Detroit Tigers, pitching 6⅔ innings with 10 strikeouts. He will face New York righty Clarke Schmidt, who was previously announced as the Yankees’ starter for Thursday’s game.

Schmidt allowed two runs over 4⅔ innings in New York’s Game 3 win of the ALDS against the Kansas City Royals. His first postseason experience came in two relief outings against the Guardians in a 2022 ALDS series. One of those appearances was at Progressive Field, when he allowed a run and three hits in ⅓ of an inning.

In any case, Schmidt knows what to expect.

“Having those experiences and kind of understanding what that environment is like, especially in the situation I was in, at the end of the game, I think that was probably the loudest part of the game,” Schmidt said. “I think you can take a lot of lessons from that, and I learned a lot from that and I can take bits and pieces from that and try to adapt my game.”

The first two games of the series were messy, especially for Cleveland, which was plagued by errors, wild pitches, walks and a lack of production with runners on base. While this isn’t what the Guardians were hoping for on this big stage, Boyd says his team is still unbowed.

“We know what we’re talking about,” Boyd said. “Our record speaks for itself. We did it in the regular season. We know what we’re made of. We’re just going to play our game.”