#How Indians survived utter chaos to reach Yankees playoff showdown

The Yankees and Indians begin their first-round, best-of-three MLB playoff series on Tuesday night (7 p.m., ESPN) in Cleveland.

5 things to know about the Indians

1. Terry Francona is in his eighth year as manager of the Indians, but he’s been away from the team for most of the season. The 61-year-old missed all but 14 games because of gastrointestinal surgery and blood-clotting issues. He managed the first eight games of the season, then returned for six more in August, but has been watching from home since Aug. 21. Sandy Alomar Jr. has filled in for Francona after his longtime bench coach, Brad Mills, opted out of the season for personal reasons. Francona is expected to join the Indians’ postseason bubble, but Alomar will continue to manage the team.

2. In the past 14 months, the Indians have traded away Trevor Bauer, Corey Kluber and Mike Clevinger — arguably their three best pitchers entering 2019 — and still have one of the best starting rotations in baseball. Shane Bieber has emerged as a Cy Young candidate while cancer survivor Carlos Carrasco, a pair of 2016 draft picks in Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale, and 23-year-old Triston McKenzie round out a starting five that own a 2.95 ERA and a 10.9 K/9.

3. The bullpen isn’t half bad, either, and the most interesting arm in it belongs to James Karinchak. The right-hander, who went to Valley Central High School in Montgomery, N.Y., is a strikeout king with a funky delivery. As a minor leaguer in 2019, he recorded 74 of 91 outs via the punch-out. Karinchak has been nearly as good this year with the Indians, striking out 53 in 27 innings (81 outs) to go with a 2.67 ERA. He has a nasty curveball, wears No. 99 and enters to “Wild Thing” — with the haircut to match.

4. The Indians had a chaotic September, all just to end up in the same position they were in entering the month: second place in their division and the No. 4 seed in the American League. On Sept. 16, the Indians lost their eighth straight game — second straight by walk-off — and had dropped to the No. 8 seed in the AL. Four days later, they started a six-game winning streak, which included three walk-off wins, to vault them back to the No. 4 seed.

5. There was drama off the field, too. Plesac was sent home during an August series in Chicago after he was found to have broken COVID-19 protocols by going out with friends on a Saturday night. Clevinger was later revealed to have done the same. Both were eventually demoted to the alternate site after a team meeting, with Plesac making things worse when he offered a tone-deaf apology on social media. But Plesac was called back up after Clevinger was traded to the Padres and finished the year with a 2.28 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 55 1/3 innings.

Yankees-Indians ties

The Yankees and Indians may not have seen each other this season, but there’s no lack of familiarity between the two sides. A look at how they are connected:

Aaron Boone

The first game Aaron Boone played after tearing his ACL in a game of pickup basketball — opening the door for the Yankees to sign Alex Rodriguez — came wearing an Indians uniform. The Yankees manager signed with Cleveland in June of 2004 while continuing to rehab, then played for the Indians in 2005 and 2006. He batted .246 with a .680 OPS and 23 home runs across 247 games.

Cal Quantrill

The Indians pitcher was 8 years old when his dad, Paul, signed with the Yankees in December of 2003. Paul went on to post an 8-3 record and 5.23 ERA across 108 relief appearances in pinstripes before being traded to the Padres midseason in 2005. The Yankees drafted Cal out of high school in 2013, but he went to Stanford and became a first-round pick of the Padres in 2016. The Indians landed him in the Clevinger trade and Quantrill finished the year with a 2.25 ERA, mostly out of the bullpen.

Clint Frazier

The Indians drafted Frazier fifth overall in the 2013 MLB draft and he rose through their system up to Triple-A Columbus in 2016. Then came the Andrew Miller trade on deadline day that July, sending the reliever to the Indians for Frazier, Justus Sheffield, Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen. Frazier finally established an everyday role for himself this season after more injuries in the Yankees outfield, improving his defense and providing a strong bat before cooling off late.

Gio Urshela

Long before Urshela turned into a revelation for the Yankees last season, he signed with the Indians as a 16-year-old international free agent in 2008. Seven years later, the third baseman made his major-league debut with the Indians as a midseason call-up. But after Urshela hit .225 with a .587 OPS in 148 games across two seasons, the Indians traded him to the Blue Jays in 2018 for cash considerations or a player to be named later.

Matt Blake

The Yankees’ first-year pitching coach had the same role at Lincoln-Sudbury High School and in the Cape Cod Baseball League in 2015 when the Indians hired him as their pitching coordinator. He has been credited with helping to develop some of the Indians’ young arms like Bieber, Plesac,  Civale and Clevinger. Blake had just been promoted to the Indians’ director of pitching development when the Yankees hired him away to replace Larry Rothschild.

Adam Plutko

The 2011 UCLA baseball team won the Pac-10 championship behind a starting rotation of Gerrit Cole, Trevor Bauer and Adam Plutko. Bauer is gone from the Indians but Plutko remains and now meets his former teammate in the MLB playoffs. While Cole will start Game 1, Plutko could be used as a reliever after transitioning to the bullpen in September.

Playoff history

The Yankees were nearly matched up with the White Sox or Rays, with whom they have no postseason history. The Indians, on the other hand, are common October enemies. Here’s how past playoff series played out:

1997 ALDS

Trying to defend their World Series title, the wild-card Yankees dropped the first-round series in five games even after going up 2-1 on the Indians.

Joe Torre’s crew won the opener 8-6, despite David Cone giving up five runs in the top of the first inning, as Tino Martinez, Tim Ranes, Derek Jeter and Paul O’Neill all homered. The Indians came back to even the series by scoring seven runs off Andy Pettitte for a 7-5 win in Game 2.

David Wells then threw a complete game win in Game 3 to put the Yankees on the verge of advancing. They were ready to do so in Game 4 before Mariano Rivera blew a save in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Indians walked it off, 3-2, against Ramiro Mendoza in the ninth.

The Indians finished off the comeback in Game 5, with Manny Ramirez driving in two runs and Jaret Wright out-pitching Pettitte for a 4-3 win.

1998 ALCS

The Yankees got a chance at redemption a year later and didn’t let it go to waste, on the way to another World Series title. They won 114 games during the regular season and then beat the Indians 4-2 in the ALCS.

David Wells tossed a gem in Game 1, a 7-2 Yankees win. The Indians evened the series in Game 2, though it took 12 innings as they scored three runs off Jeff Nelson to win it 4-1.

Bartolo Colon then came up with a complete-game gem of his own for a 6-1 Indians win in Game 3, but Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez answered with seven shutout innings in Game 4 to lead the Yankees to a 4-0 win against Dwight Gooden.

Chili Davis helped the Yankees take Game 5, 5-3, going 2-for-5 with three RBIs to match another strong start from Wells. The Yankees closed it out in Game 6, a 9-5 win, with Scott Brosius driving in three runs and scoring two more in the clincher.

2007 ALDS

The AL Central-champion Indians beat the wild-card Yankees 3-1 and set the tone right from the start.

The Tribe won Game 1, 12-3, clobbering Chien-Ming Wang while CC Sabathia picked up the win. Kenny Lofton was one of three Indians with three hits and he added four RBIs. The Indians then won Game 2 in much different fashion — after Joba Chamberlain was swarmed by midges while giving up the lead in the eighth inning — with Travis Hafner delivering a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th inning against Luis Vizcaino for the 2-1 win.

The Yankees made sure there would be no sweep, coming back to the Bronx to beat up on Jake Westbrook. Johnny Damon went 3-for-4 with four RBIs while Phil Hughes relieved Roger Clemens (in the final game of his career) and picked up the win.

But the Indians ended it in four games, getting to Wang again for a 6-4 win.

2017 ALDS

The Yankees helped make Joe Girardi’s crucial replay gaffe in Game 2 a footnote rather than the story of the series, which they came back to win in five games after facing a 2-0 hole.

Trevor Bauer blanked the Yankees in Game 1 with Jay Bruce providing the offense against Sonny Gray in a 4-0 Indians win. Game 2 was a wild one, with the Indians prevailing 9-8 in 13 innings after the Yankees blew an 8-3 lead — with some help from Lonnie Chisenhall loading the bases with two outs in the sixth inning on a hit-by-pitch that never hit him. Girardi failed to challenge the play, though, and Francisco Lindor came up next to crack a grand slam, setting the Indians’ comeback in motion.

But the Yankees got their manager’s back. Masahiro Tanaka threw seven shutout innings and Greg Bird homered for a 1-0, Game 3 win. Luis Severino then out-pitched Bauer in Game 4 for a 7-3 win before Didi Gregorius (3-for-4, three RBIs, two runs) and the Yankees finished the job with a 5-2, Game 5 win in Cleveland.