Guardians vs. Yankees ALDS Game 2: New York lineup brings 'damage' Shane Bieber must avoid

The 2022 season was a get-back-on-the-bike-again kind of year for Guardians ace Shane Bieber.

Bieber missed roughly half of 2021 after injuring his throwing shoulder. It was the first time in his professional career he missed extended time. It was the first time he couldn't be counted on every fifth day. Bieber has noted on multiple occasions recently that the time away was difficult for him.

He entered 2022 hoping for a rebound. Early on, he was effective, albeit not as dominant — at least by appearance — while dealing with a dip in velocity. Bieber still put forth a solid first half, posting a 3.24 ERA in 105⅓ innings. But he found another gear in his final 13 starts, a stretch that spanned from the end of July to the end o the season. In his final 88⅓ innings, Bieber posted a 2.04 ERA with 88 strikeouts, looking every bit of the ace of which the Guardians had come to expect.

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Bieber quietly put together a solid 2022 season and ended the year with a 2.88 ERA and 198 strikeouts in an even 200 innings, an important plateau for pitchers, especially one coming off an injury-shortened year in 2021. It did take an adjustment early in the season before he hit his stride.

"Yeah, took awhile. Can't say if or when I was able to kind of turn that corner," Bieber told reporters in New York Thursday. "Mentally, I feel like I entered the season feeling good, feeling healthy. But after taking a little bit of time off, making some mechanical adjustments, it takes awhile to find the right sequencing and arm stroke. Somewhere between June and July, July and August, started to feel a little bit better. Started to see some stuff tick up."

Bieber rode that momentum into Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing one run on three hits with eight strikeouts in 7⅔ innings. The Guardians won 2-1 and then won Game 2 1-0 to sweep the series.

His next test is a Yankees lineup that battled inconsistency in 2022, but one that can jump on opposing pitchers with an extra dose of power better than any team in baseball. The Yankees paced the majors with 254 home runs during the regular season, exactly twice as many as the Guardians' 127.

The Yankees tagged Game 1 starter Cal Quantrill with two home runs, a solo shot from Harrison Bader and a two-run blast from Anthony Rizzo, and won Game 1, 4-1. Bieber will take the mound in Game 2 hoping to even the series before it heads back to Cleveland for Game 3.

"Damage," Bieber said, speaking of the Yankees lineup. "I think as long as you don't change your game plan, your aggressiveness and stick to your strengths, put yourself in a good position to, at the end of the day, just compete, put the team in a good position to win and hand the ball off to the bullpen, like we've tried to do all year. And like I've said, going into the postseason, I think that's ultimately the goal. So stay aggressive. Keep guys off base. No free bases. That will be the goal."

The timing of when Game 2 will actually be played is in doubt. Inclement weather is in the forecast Thursday night in New York. There's a reasonable risk that the first pitch will be delayed or moved to Friday. The Guardians are used to weather delays after dealing with a higher number than normal in 2022.

"I think that you have to attack it like there's not anything different," Bieber said. "I'll go about my day [Wednesday] in preparation for my start [Thursday] and I'll prepare like I'm starting a 7:37 game and we'll go from there. … Yeah, it's happened quite a bit this year. I wouldn't say I've gotten used to it, but I definitely have a little bit of experience with it."

Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis.

ALDS Game 2

Guardians at Yankees

Time: 1:07 p.m. Friday

TV: TBS

Pitchers: Shane Bieber (13-8, 2.88) vs. Nestor Cortes (12-4, 2.44)

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Guardians ALDS: Shane Bieber faces Yankees to try to even series