Guardians' Shane Bieber to be 'aggressive' vs. Aaron Judge, Yankees

Cleveland Guardians ace Shane Bieber doesn't plan to pitch around Aaron Judge or any other members of the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the American League Division Series. 

"I think especially in this ballpark, they are able to hit for a slug and do it with guys on base," Bieber said of the Yankees playing at their home venue coming off New York's Game 1 4-1 victory on Tuesday night, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post. "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." 

Such a strategy largely worked on Tuesday, as Judge struck out on three occasions but did his most damage on the basepaths following a walk to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning. The reigning AL single-season home-run record holder stole second and advanced to third via an error, and Anthony Rizzo's attempt to merely hit a sacrifice fly sailed over the wall for a two-run homer. 

As for Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner didn't face the Bronx Bombers this season. He finished the campaign at 13-8 with a 2.88 ERA and 198 strikeouts across 200 innings of work. 

Cleveland and New York are scheduled to play Game 2 at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night, but Mike Axisa of CBS Sports noted the matchup could be pushed to Friday due to rain. From there, the clubs have two contests scheduled to occur in downtown Cleveland on Saturday and Sunday, with the series' deciding game set to take place in the Bronx on Monday if it is necessary.