Live updates, analysis: Judge, Soto score to help Yankees take lead vs. Guardians

Oct 14, 2024, 08:18 PM ET

It’s a two-game day in the League Championship Series.

In the first game of the day, the New York Mets struck early and the Los Angeles Dodgers were never able to overcome the deficit as the Mets evened up the series 1-1 with a 7-3 win in Game 2.

Meanwhile, the New York Yankees host the Cleveland Guardians in a championship series game against a team other than the Houston Astros for the first time since 2012. Can Carlos Rodon change the tune of the Yankees’ recent American League Championship Series struggles?

We’ve got you covered with lineups, live updates and analysis as the games are played, followed by our takeaways after each final pitch.

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Takeaways

Series tied 1-1

The New York Mets‘ season-long narrative has centered on the team’s uncanny resiliency. Monday’s bounce-back win in Game 2 did nothing to refute that take on New York’s campaign. It’s been late-game thunderbolts that have propelled the Mets, but today the rumbling started right from the outset on Francisco Lindor‘s leadoff homer. It was only one run, but it was huge after the Los Angeles Dodgers stifled the Mets’ lineup in Game 1 to extend a historic streak of scoreless innings. The impregnable Dodgers staff narrative died with that swing, and the Mets’ Weeble wobble ways continued. As in, you can push ’em over, but they pop right back up.

The Lindor blast set the tone while Mark Vientos‘ grand slam in the second inning furthered his own narrative as New York’s emergent October hero. That gave Sean Manaea all the buffer he needed, and while the Dodgers threatened to close the gap a couple of times, the Mets evened the series in a relatively low-drama contest. The lesson for the Dodgers: This Mets team is not going to go quietly, if it goes down at all.

What to watch in Game 3: With an even series after two games and the next three games at Citi Field, the probabilities have swung ever so slightly to the Mets’ side. That’s just the math of it, but in reality, nothing in this series has been decided. New York now has home advantage, but that’s more or less meaningless — and the more important factor is which team benefits more from the day off as the series shifts to New York. Whose staff needed the rest more? Whose injured hitters (Freddie Freeman, Gavin Lux, Brandon Nimmo) will be most restored by Game 3? Basically, buckle up for Wednesday because this thing is just getting started. — Bradford Doolittle