New York Yankees 2, Cleveland Guardians 3
CLEVELAND — The Yankees fell short of Guardians 3-2 in their first Cleveland game. Their pitchers remained in the wilderness and allowed nine walks squandering a 2-0 early lead.
Shane Bieber got over a rough first inning to pitch seven innings, Josh Naylor broke a tie with a sacrifice fly to give Cleveland the lead, and James Karinchak got the Guardians out of a tight spot to win 3-2 on Monday night at Progressive Field.
The Yankees lost an early lead
Bieber looked like he was in trouble after the Yankees first four batters scored two runs and got three hits. But Cleveland’s starter calmed down and got out of 17 of 18 situations in a row. He gave up five hits and two runs.
Naylor’s “rock the baby” gesture after hitting a home run in Game 4 made him a target for New York fans during the playoffs. He gave the Guardians a 3-2 lead in the seventh on Monday with a liner off of Ian Hamilton (0-1).
When Gleyber Torres hit a triple to start the eighth, it gave the Yankees a chance to tie the game. But Karinchak left him at third. He was called for a clock violation before he threw his first pitch, but then he got Aaron Judge out with a pop-up to the infield and struck out Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton.
After striking out Stanton, Karinchak got angry and pounded his chest. The reliever then hit catcher Zunino so hard that it took the mask off his head.
Aaron Boone didn’t lose hope until eight
When the eighth inning started and Torres was on third, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was sure that his team would tie it.
“Karinchak made some really good pitches,” he said. “We’ll take that situation. But he made some good pitches and sure got excited about it. We just gotta cash in the next time.”
Boone was asked if Karinchak’s enthusiasm bothered him.
“No,” he said. “That’s a big spot.”
The Guardians got their fourth one-run win of the young season when Emmanuel Clase worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his third save.
Last October, the Guardians were up 2-1 against the Yankees before they were eliminated. Zunino had three doubles and drove in a run for them.
Too many walks
Domingo Germán, the Yankees’ starting pitcher, walked five batters in three innings. The Yankees as a whole walked nine batters, and New York didn’t build on its early success against Bieber.
“I thought we did a good job being aggressive with Bieber, not spotting him anything there and Gleyber set the tone in that first inning,” Boone said. “That first inning could have very easily been a four- or five-run inning if the ball finds a hole.”
Judge went 0 for 3 with a walk, putting him on base for the 43rd straight game. This is the longest on-base streak for the Yankees since 2005. It is also the third-longest on-base run for New York in the last 82 years, behind only Derek Jeter (57) and Alex Rodriguez (53).
DJ LeMahieu had the day off, so Torres hit first and got the Yankees off to a good start.
Torres doubled on Bieber’s first pitch, and the bases were full before Stanton hit a two-run double off the left-center wall at 116.3 mph. Bieber, however, didn’t give up and got three outs to stop any more damage.
UP NEXT
Gerrit Cole (2-0, 0.73) will start for the Yankees against the Guardians for the first time on Tuesday since beating them twice in the playoffs last year.
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