Guardians beat Yankees 4-2 in 10 innings to tie AL Division Series

New York Yankees 2, Cleveland Guardians 4

NEW YORK — The Cleveland Guardians are able to parlay their numerous small hits into significant victories.

In the first pitch of the 10th inning, José Ramrez tried hard to get to third base. He hit a popup that fell in left field, 200 feet from home plate. He scored the run that broke the tie when Oscar Gonzalez drove the ball to the right field. Josh Naylor’s double was the only hard-hit ball of the inning, and he scored on it.

“It’s not an easy way to win, but that doesn’t mean you can’t,” said Terry Francona, manager of the Cleveland Guardians, after his team beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Friday despite being down by two runs. The win tied the AL Division Series, which is made up of five games, at one game each.

Winner Emmanuel Clase pitched 2 1/3 innings, which was his most in the major leagues. He and relief pitchers Trevor Stephan and James Karinchak worked together to pitch 4 1/3 innings of one-hit relief. Cleveland, which was 29th out of 30 big league teams in home runs, ended a six-game losing streak to the Yankees in the playoffs.

On Saturday evening, Game 3 will take place in Cleveland. Because Game 2 had to be postponed due to the weather on Thursday, there will not be a travel day.

“The starting lineup is good, and the bullpen is great. They had bad things down there, “Yankees slugger Aaron Judge said.

Judge went 0 for 5 and struck out four times. He also walked once and struck out seven times in the series. In three playoff series against Cleveland, he has gone 2 for 37 and struck out 27 times, including all four games in which he struck out four times.

Just a little late, Judge said. When you’re a little late, you’re missing pitches that you usually doing some damage on. You’re swinging at stuff that you usually don’t.

Some fans in the sold-out crowd of 47,355 booed him after he struck out against Stephan in the seventh. He had just set the AL record for home runs with 62.

Aaron Boone, the manager of the Yankees, said, “It’s the Bronx, man.” “On any given day, even the best batters go hitless.”

On a cloudless afternoon, shadows crept across the field from first base, reminiscent of so many World Series games at old Yankee Stadium in the 1940s and 1950s.

Giancarlo Stanton hit his tenth home run of the postseason in game 20 against Shane Bieber. Stanton’s home run was a two-run shot to right field that went the other way around the field.

Andres Giménez’s RBI single in the fourth and Amed Rosario’s home run into the Yankees bullpen in the fifth tied the score against All-Star Nestor Cortes.

Myles Straw hit a one-hop smash with two outs, but Cortes jumped and threw to first from a sitting position, saving two runs. Cortes fell off the third-base side of the mound. As he hit the mound with his head toward first, he put out his glove hand to catch the ball. He leaned back and threw the ball with one hop to first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who picked it up for the out.

‘I’m supposed to make that play 100% of the time. Just a little bit more dramatic effect into it, Cortes said. The bounce pass was probably the best idea because if I were to get up and go, I would probably would have been late.

After Cortes, the next four pitchers were Lou Trivino, Jonathan Loáisiga, Wandy Peralta, and Clay Holmes, and they combined to throw four hitless innings.

After 143 starts, Jameson Taillon made his first big league relief appearance, and Ramrez drove a fastball past Oswaldo Cabrera who failed to reach it. Ramrez hustled all the way to third and slid in headfirst as Donaldson fired the ball past second for an error.

Gonzalez hit a ball at 59 mph that went 164 feet and landed between Judge in right and Gleyber Torres at second base. Naylor also hit a double that went over the right-center wall and scored a run.

Clase threw 33 pitches, which was 10 more than his best regular-season total. After Karinchak walked the bases full in the eighth, he came in and got rid of Kyle Higashioka with a lineout to third baseman Ramrez that ended the inning.

During the tense marathon that lasted for four hours and ten minutes, New York only managed to get six hits and went hitless with seven runners in scoring position.

UP NEXT

Luis Severino (7-3, 3.18) will make his first start in the postseason for the Yankees since 2019. For the Guardians, RHP Triston McKenzie (11-11, 2.96) will take the mound after pitching six innings without allowing a run in Game 2 against Tampa Bay.

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