New York Yankees 4, Cleveland Guardians 3
CLEVELAND — Oswaldo Cabrera hit a tie-breaking double with two outs against Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth inning, and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-3 on Wednesday.
Giancarlo Stanton scored when Miguel Cabrera hit a ball to right field off of Clase (1-1). Stanton had reached on an infield single with one out and moved to second on Amed Rosario’s bad throw.
In the ninth, the Yankees’ closer Clay Holmes hit a batter and walked two others. He then struck out Rosario to get the last out and his fourth save. Wandy Peralta (1-0) won because he pitched an eighth with no hits.
For the third time in 20 years, New York has won its first four series by taking two of three games in each.
In the last game of the series, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was thrown out after a confusing and controversial play in the first inning. In the fifth inning, a relay throw hit second base umpire Larry Vanover in the face.
Franchy Cordero homers for the Yankees
In the seventh, the Yankees’ Franchy Cordero hit his fourth home run of the season. This tied the game at 3-3. After Baltimore let him go at the end of March, New York signed him.
Aaron Judge went 0 for 3, but he walked and is now on base for the 44th straight game. This is the longest on-base streak in the majors since Paul Goldschmidt’s 46 games for St. Louis last season.
Peyton Battenfield, a rookie for Cleveland, played his first game in the major leagues. He started against baseball’s most famous team after being called up from Triple-A Columbus when Aaron Civale got hurt.
Anthony Volpe’s double
His day got off to a bad start when the right-second hander’s pitch to rookie Anthony Volpe was a double off the wall. But Battenfield struck out Judge, got Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton out with ground balls, and took a 3-0 lead into the fifth inning.
In the fifth inning, New York hit him for two runs, and Vanover’s scary injury sent a chill through Progressive Field.
Kyle Higahioka hit a double off the wall when there were two runners on. Myles Straw in center field quickly got the ball to All-Star second baseman Andrés Giménez, who turned and threw toward home plate, hitting Vanover on the left side of the head between second base and the pitcher’s mound.
Vanover was knocked off his feet by the impact, and his hat flew off as he landed on the grass in the infield. Vanover was checked by a trainer before slowly walking off the field, which scared Giménez.
However, the 67-year-old umpire is fine and will have his next game as scheduled after undergoing a concussion test.
Yankees manager was ejected
Earlier, Vanover was involved in a heated argument with Boone, who was thrown out for the first time this season and the 27th time in his career.
With one out in the first, Cleveland had runners on second and third. Josh Naylor hit a looping ball to center field that Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks seemed to catch by sliding. Hicks threw to second for a force out and what looked like a double play to end the inning.
But while both teams were in their dugouts, a replay of Hicks not making the catch was shown on the big scoreboard in left field. It wasn’t clear right away if Terry Francona, the manager of the Guardians, had asked for a challenge in the 15 seconds allowed.
Vanover and the other three umpires talked for a few minutes before Vanover spoke to Francona. Francona seemed happy with what Vanover told him.
That made Boone come out. He was angry because he thought it took the Guardians too long to ask for the challenge. After some pointing and gesturing, Boone was thrown out of the game, but he came back to the field at least three more times to explain.
After the review and a break of almost 10 minutes, the umpires decided that Naylor’s ball fell in for a base hit and a run batted in. The Guardians took advantage of the overturn again when first baseman Josh Bell hit a single that scored a run and put Cleveland up 2-0.
UP NEXT
In the first game of the Yankees’ 10-game homestand, rookie RHP Jhony Brito (2-0, 0.90) will face Twins RHP Joe Ryan (2-0, 3.75).
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