Cleveland Used Both Aces to Survive — Now Foster Griffin Gets ALCS Game 1
GOATIFYCleveland reached the American League Championship Series by asking almost everything of its best arms. Now comes the consequence: the Guardians must begin a best-of-seven series against the league's top seed without either of the starters who dragged them through the previous round. That makes Foster Griffin, a pitcher who spent three seasons rebuilding his career in Japan, the unlikely face of their next October challenge.
Manager Stephen Vogt has given the 31-year-old left-hander Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday, October 12. It is a calculated decision, not a ceremonial reward. Griffin's recent relief appearance showed his stuff can miss bats in a crisis, and Tampa Bay's season-long struggles against left-handed pitching offer Cleveland an angle that might matter more than name recognition. The question is whether Griffin can turn a brilliant short outing into enough innings to protect an already-tested bullpen.
Why Cleveland Handed Game 1 to Griffin
There is a tempting way to describe Griffin's assignment: Cleveland has run out of obvious choices. That misses the strategic calculation behind it. Gavin Williams and Parker Messick were central to the Guardians' escape from a 2–0 Division Series deficit against Chicago. Williams even made an emergency relief appearance in Game 4 before starting the deciding Game 5. Asking either pitcher to turn around and open the ALCS on Monday would have made a hard postseason workload harder still.
Vogt instead turned to Griffin, whose latest appearance supplied the most persuasive argument available. Called from the bullpen in Game 3 after an early pitching change, Griffin recorded seven strikeouts in just 2 2/3 innings while allowing one run. His sweeper and fastball generated five of those strikeouts. In a game Cleveland needed to win merely to stay alive, he stabilized the middle innings and gave the offense time to respond. That is not the same task as starting against a 98-win club, but it is compelling evidence that the moment itself does not overwhelm him.
His season explains why Cleveland was willing to take the risk. Griffin posted a 3.06 ERA across 22 starts for Washington before a summer trade. His nine starts with the Guardians produced a less flattering 5.19 ERA, yet that aggregate hides how uneven the damage was: an eight-run outing against Baltimore was especially costly, while his other eight starts combined for a much stronger 3.73 ERA. His September 23 appearance in Boston, six innings with seven strikeouts and no walks, offered another reminder of what his command can look like when it clicks.
That mix of volatility and upside is exactly what an ALCS opener demands. Vogt considered other arms, including Tanner Bibee and Joey Cantillo, but Griffin offers a conventional starter's workload and a left-handed look that Tampa Bay has not handled as efficiently. The manager does not need a complete game. He needs competitive innings, fewer free baserunners and enough length to keep the relief corps intact for the games that follow. After using the rotation aggressively just to reach this round, Cleveland's first victory would be getting a sustainable start.
The Rays' Left-Handed Split Gives Cleveland a Real Opening
The clearest numerical case for Griffin is a split: Tampa Bay finished the regular season with a .752 OPS against right-handed pitching, among the best marks in baseball, but just .679 against left-handers, ranking near the bottom of the league. That gap does not guarantee that any particular lefty will dominate the Rays. It does suggest Cleveland has chosen a matchup that challenges the habits behind a 98-win offense rather than simply throwing its highest-profile available arm.
Griffin's varied arsenal is useful here. His cutter, four-seam fastball, sweeper and additional off-speed options let him change both speed and movement without showing a hitter the same look three times. Against a lineup that can string together contact, defend and create pressure on the bases, the value is not merely the strikeout total. It is the ability to stay out of predictable counts, prevent runners from advancing cheaply and make the dangerous right-handed bats earn their opportunities. A seven-strikeout relief burst is exciting; a sequence of quick, controlled innings might be more valuable on Monday.
The danger is that season-long splits are only a starting point. Junior Caminero can change a game with one swing, Yandy Díaz is experienced at grinding through difficult plate appearances, and Tampa Bay's lineup has already demonstrated that it can win close, low-scoring postseason contests. The Rays took five of six regular-season meetings with Cleveland, outscoring the Guardians 20–8. Five of those six games were decided by three runs or fewer. This is a matchup in which a single mistake may decide an otherwise excellent pitching performance.
Cleveland's own lineup choices will matter as well. Steven Kwan gives the Guardians a patient, contact-oriented presence near the top, while José Ramírez and Chase DeLauter supply the potential to turn traffic into runs. Travis Bazzana and the supporting cast cannot simply wait for a home run. Against a rested Tampa Bay staff, the Guardians need long at-bats and runners in scoring position before the late innings. The left-handed starting matchup gives Cleveland an opening on the mound, but it does not remove the obligation to manufacture offense on the other side.
Drew Rasmussen Makes Every Cleveland Run More Valuable
Any discussion of Griffin's opportunity has to include the pitcher waiting in the opposite dugout. Drew Rasmussen has already produced one of the defining performances of this postseason: eight scoreless innings against the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS, carrying a no-hit bid into the eighth and finishing with ten strikeouts. Tampa Bay won that game 1–0. Rasmussen's ability to turn a narrow lead into a final score is why Cleveland cannot treat Monday as a routine road opener.
Rasmussen was also sharp against the Guardians during the regular season. On July 26 he threw seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts, allowing just one hit and one walk. The matchup is therefore not theoretical. Cleveland has seen how his command, movement and sequencing can keep its lineup off balance. When he gets ahead, hitters must decide whether to protect against the fastball or wait for something that may never arrive over the middle of the plate. Against that kind of pitcher, chasing an early deficit can be a losing proposition.
The extra rest afforded by Tampa Bay's sweep of New York changes the tactical balance too. Rasmussen was lined up for a potential fourth Division Series game, but the Rays ended the matchup in three. That gave their staff time to recover while Cleveland played a tense five-game series. A rested starter backed by a rested bullpen is a different obstacle from the exhausted arms the Guardians had to exploit during their comeback against Chicago. Cleveland cannot assume Tampa Bay will offer the same late-inning openings.
There is still a path for the visitors. They can make Rasmussen work by refusing pitches outside their preferred zones, forcing him to show his full repertoire and finding ways to reach base without relying exclusively on power. Ramírez's October resurgence is particularly important because he can punish a rare mistake even when the game is otherwise quiet. But Cleveland should not measure its first-night performance only by whether it solves Rasmussen early. Keeping the game within one run, avoiding wasted outs on the bases and pushing his pitch count upward would create a real chance to steal an opener that the Rays are built to control.
The Real Test Is How Cleveland Protects Its Pitching Advantage
The Guardians' bullpen has been an October strength, but that is not the same as having unlimited relief innings. Through the Division Series, Cleveland's relievers combined for a 2.67 ERA with 39 strikeouts and nine walks across 27 innings. Those are outstanding numbers under playoff pressure. They also represent a considerable workload in a short window, especially with Williams and Messick already stretched to keep the season alive. A Griffin start that ends after three innings would put immediate stress on the very group Cleveland hopes to preserve.
Vogt's late-game blueprint is recognizable: bridge the middle innings with dependable matchups, then work toward Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, Erik Sabrowski and closer Cade Smith when the leverage rises. The sequence becomes much harder if Cleveland must ask those pitchers to cover six or seven innings from the outset. It also affects Tuesday. A seven-game series is not won by emptying every option in Game 1, and the Guardians cannot forget that the next game arrives just 24 hours later. The difference between Griffin recording twelve outs and eighteen could shape more than the final score on Monday.
Offensively, the Guardians have reason to believe their confidence is real rather than a one-game spike. Ramírez began the ALDS slowly, then went 5-for-12 with seven RBIs over its final three games. Kwan helped create the scoring chance for his decisive Game 5 home run, and Cleveland found contributions throughout the lineup as the series turned. Still, Tampa Bay presents a more stable pitching environment than a White Sox staff forced into repeated elimination games. The Guardians must show they can convert their late-series rhythm into sustained quality at-bats against fresher arms.
That is why Griffin's assignment carries such unusual weight. It is partly a reward for a career rebuilt through persistence, partly a direct response to the Rays' left-handed split, and partly a necessity created by Cleveland's heroic use of its two aces. The best outcome is not necessarily a spectacular strikeout count. It is a game in which Griffin gives Cleveland six credible innings, the lineup finds a few timely runs and the bullpen finishes without burning tomorrow's options. In a series likely to be decided by narrow margins, that kind of restraint could be the difference between a memorable opening win and a difficult climb.
Griffin has traveled from a stalled major-league career to Japan, back to an All-Star season and now to an ALCS Game 1 start. The story is remarkable, but Cleveland's needs are practical: exploit the left-handed matchup, survive Rasmussen's early dominance and preserve enough pitching to compete across the week. Monday's opener will not decide the pennant. It can, however, reveal whether the Guardians' unlikely comeback has left them depleted—or sharpened them for the biggest series of their season.
