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Last night was proof: even ugly baseball can be exciting! Plus: Ken on Walker Buehler, the Gold Glove finalists have been announced and we get some context on the final four remaining teams. I am Levi Weaverhere with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!

ALCS Game 2: Yankees take care of business at home

Yankees 6, Guardians 3: In baseball they don’t award style points. If they did, neither team would be leading this series as it moves from New York to Cleveland.

Let’s start with the Guardians. Last night, each of their two mistakes led to a point. They collected eight hits and six walks to keep the bases warm all night, but went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, leaving a total of 11 runners stranded. Tanner Bibee didn’t make it to the second inning.

That meant manager Stephen used Vogt eight pitchers in defeat. That worked in Game 5 against the Tigers. It didn’t work last night.

That wasn’t the only lever Vogt pulled. Trailing 3-0 in the fourth inning, Vogt tried to take advantage of a one-out situation with the bases loaded by pinch hitting for catcher Bo Naylor. But David Fry hit a pop-out and the Guardians didn’t score. Austin Hedges came in as catcher.

An inning later, the Guardians had scored twice to make it 3-2 and loaded the bases again, this time with two outs. Hedges is a great defensive catcher…who also happened to hit .152 this year. He struck out swinging.

As with the quick hook for Bibee, it’s hard to say Vogt made the wrong call both times. He couldn’t have predicted it another bases loaded situation an inning later. Sometimes, as Ron Washington once said, “That’s the way baseball goes.” They need things to change – and urgently.

It wasn’t the best victory for the Yankees either. Gerrit Cole started strong, but walked as many batters as he struckout (four) in 4 1/3 inning. In the sixth, the Yankees made two outs on the basepaths in one inning. They allowed baserunners in every inning except the first and sixth.

But they executed when they had to. Style points or not, they lead the series 2-0. And Aaron Judge ended up homering in this one. If he finds his feet, this one might get even uglier for Cleveland.

More Yankees: How New York helped Luke Weaver unleash the best versions of his three pitches.

Ken’s notebook: Buehler’s new reality in the spotlight tonight

One way to describe Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler, based on his interactions with reporters, is demeaning.

Buehler, 30, is no longer the ace who led the Dodgers to the 2020 World Series title, or the pitcher who was an All-Star and top-10 NL Cy Young finisher in 2019 and ’21. A second Tommy John surgery in August 2022 changed everything. When he returned this season, he struggled and had to spend almost two months on the injured list due to inflammation in the right hip.

While Buehler showed encouraging signs in his Division Series start against the San Diego Padres, pitching three scoreless innings after allowing six runs in the second, he demurred yesterday when asked if he has returned to where he wants to be in October.

“It’s hard to say yes to that question after six earned runs,” Buehler said on the eve of his Game 3 start against the New York Mets in the NLCS, declining to note that the inning also included part of knew the bad luck. “But yes, I feel good, I am confident. That was one of my strongest points for a long time: my self-confidence.”

It’s understandable if Buehler isn’t as confident as he was earlier in his career, Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said.

“He’s had a long few years,” Prior explained. “It was quite a challenge, obviously from a physical point of view, with the elbow and the rehabilitation. It is also mental and emotional. It has not been an easy road back for him. He had to go back to the drawing board several times and try to figure out, ‘Okay, this doesn’t work, that didn’t work.’

The Buehler of old had no such concerns.

“Let’s be honest. He went out and bullied boys,” Prior said. “He had (elite) command. He had a swing-and-miss on his fastball. He changed speed when necessary.

‘He can’t bully boys. It takes a while to realize that you’re not that pitcher right now, and not that he won’t be that guy anymore. How is he creative? How does he use his imagination to get hitters out? Ultimately, it’s all about screwing up their timing. And he’s been better at that lately.”

In 16 starts this season, including his playoff start against the Padres, Buehler’s ERA is 5.38. He still has more than six innings to complete. And against the Mets, backed by a rested bullpen, his leash is relatively short.

He is not the Buehler of old. Tonight the Dodgers just need him to be good enough.

(Game 3: Buehler vs. Luis Severino, 8:08 PM ET, FS1. Stream the MLB Playoffs on Fubo.)

Charles LeClaire / Imagn images

Awards Chatter: Named Gold Glove finalists

That’s not it rather awards season isn’t over yet, but we’re now at the “drop hints, start some arguments” part of the proceedings. The Gold Glove finalists were announced yesterday, and the lists – three players per position, per league – include some familiar names and a few surprises.

Among the usual suspects: Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez, Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado, Royals catcher Salv – wait a minute, wait…

Actually, that’s Royals catcher Freddy Ferminwho started 72 of the Royals’ 162 games at catcher. Perez started at 90. It’s an unexpected passing of the golden torch in Kansas City, but not exactly a “Rafael Palmeiro wins the Gold Glove in 1999 despite playing only 28 games at first base” situation. Fermin’s 16 defensive runs tied the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh for the league lead.

Other notable finalists:

• Bryce Harperin his first full season as a first baseman in Philadelphia. Harper was a finalist as a right fielder in 2015 and 2019, but has yet to win one.
• Juan Soto is not known as a particularly good right fielder for the Yankees, but he is one of the three finalists in the American League.
• Seth Lugo/Cole Ragans — It seemed unusual to see two players from the same team competing for one Gold Glove, but with pitchers it turns out not so strange. Since 2014, Lugo and Ragans are the fifth pair of pitching teammates to be named Gold Glove finalists. In fact, last year it happened in both leagues, with Sonny Gray and Pablo López of the Twins in the AL and Taijuan Walker and Zack Wheeler of the Phillies in the NL.

More golden gloves: Grant Brisbee gives us a highlight of the Giants’ finalists. It’s worth clicking for the Matt Chapman videos alone.

Lessons: Let’s talk about the playoff format

Man, I love context. I’m a sucker for it. Give me a new statistic and my next questions will always be things like, “Why does it matter? Who is the best/worst at it? How large does the sample size need to be before it is relevant?” and half a dozen others if necessary.

Team wins a big game? Player has a great (or terrible) outing? I immediately want to know how it fits into their trends. Was this an outlier? If so, was this the result of an adjustment or simply an anomaly?

Context fades into background noise in the playoffs. Take something as simple as a four-game losing streak. The Yankees had two this year, and it wasn’t a big deal: they’re two wins away from the World Series! But if they were to do it again from now on, it would be an apocalypse-level event in the Bronx as the Guardians chased each other down the hill.

I love the playoffs, but the loss of context is my least favorite part. So here’s a big thank you to Stephen Nesbitt for sneaking in a piece of my favorite thing. Going all the way back to our preseason Power Rankings, he tells us what we learned about each of the four remaining teams, and how each of them got here.

Stephen, thanks for your commitment to context. Now we have to scroll down and see what we learned from the Mets…

“In the playoffs, recency is more predictive than reputation.”

Oh, come on.

Handshakes and high fives

(Top photo: Brad Penner / Imagn Images)