The Guardians play perhaps their most important game of the entire year against the Yankees on Thursday. A 0-3 deficit in the series would likely mean the end of the season. Here are three things they must accomplish to give themselves the best chance to win.

Get an early lead

This may seem obvious, but in both games of this series, the Yankees have scored early and forced the Guardians to play from behind. During this postseason, the first-scoring teams have a 20-12 record. That’s a big deal, and it’s even bigger when you have the best bullpen in baseball. Being able to take the lead after 4 innings and then go to a combination of Sabrowksi/Walters/Herrin/Smith/Gaddis/Clase IS the formula for this team to win.

SINGLE length from Matthew Boyd-

We don’t need six shutout innings from Boyd, although that would be nice. However, we do need more length than we got from the first two starters. Alex Cobb was eliminated after 2.2 innings and Tanner Bibee was eliminated from the game after recording just one out in the second inning. This team can’t afford another start like that if they want to win this series. 4-5 innings is really all we can ask for, and realistically it’s all we need with the talent in this bullpen.

Take advantage of every opportunity-

This is by far the most important key to winning. In game 2, the Guardians went 0-7 with RISP, leaving 11 on base. Getting the big hit was something this team did well for most of the season, and it was a big reason why they were so good in the first half of the season. They’ve really struggled with that in this postseason, and that’s the main reason they lost Game 2. They created so many chances for themselves and could never capitalize on them. José Ramírez and Josh Naylor in particular MUST be able to come out big when it matters. If they continue to play the way they have played so far in this postseason, the Guardians will not be able to win.