Cleveland Guardians Announce Starting Lineup for ALCS Game 2

The Cleveland Guardians walked into Tropicana Field on Monday night and simply stole Game 1 of the ALCS from the Tampa Bay Rays with their late offensive explosion.

This group knows better than anyone, though, that it can’t dwell too much in the past and lose sight of the future.

Here is Cleveland's starting lineup for Game 2 as the Guardians look to take a 2-0 lead over Tampa Bay.

The Guardians are using a lineup very similar to the one they used in Game 1 for Game 2, but there are a few minor changes to note.

The first is that Chase DeLauter and Jo Adell will swap defensive positions: DeLauter as the team's designated hitter and Adell as the starting right fielder.

This move by Stephen Vogt is likely nothing more than just trying to keep everybody's legs fresh with how few off days Cleveland has had over the last week.

Adell was the DH on Monday night; now it's his turn to be in the field, and vice versa for DeLauter. 

Cleveland's skipper is also sticking with Petey Halpin in the starting lineup and leaving Angel Martinez on the bench as a pinch-hitting option later in the game.

Martinez did get a hit after subbing into the game on Monday night, but he also had a strikeout to go along with that.

Halpin has simply given the Guardians the better at-bats right now, and his defense on a tough Tropicana astroturf field could give him the slight edge over Martinez, too.

Perhaps the most surprising move with this lineup is that Austin Hedges is getting the start over Patrick Bailey, who has been one of Cleveland's best hitters all postseason.

However, Hedges has been Parker Messick's pseudo-personal catcher all year, and Bailey hasn't caught the rookie pitcher at all, not even one inning so far this season.

Given how much success this pairing has had, Cleveland's skipper simply can't take any chances with messing it up at this point in October.

The Guardians need Messick to get as deep into the game as possible on Tuesday. That said, once the starter's night does come to an end, Vogt will likely go right back to Bailey as the pinch-hitter and take over for whoever is the first pitcher to come out of Cleveland's bullpen.