New York Yankees 5, Cleveland Guardians 1
NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge both hit home runs early in the game, helping the New York Yankees cruise to a 5-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians in the deciding game of their AL Division Series on Tuesday. This victory sets up a rematch between the Yankees and the Houston Astros for the American League pennant and leads to a wild celebration in New York.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Myles Straw hit a game-ending grounder. There were two runners already on the base and two outs already recorded. But IKF got the ball and send it back to the second base ensuring a big respite for the Yankees.
Gleyber Torres ended the game by stepping on the bag and then imitating the motion of rocking a baby with the ball to take a dig at Cleveland’s Josh Naylor for his Game 4 taunting.
Aaron Boone, manager of the New York Yankees, was successful in his gamble by starting Nestor Cortes on three days’ rest over Jameson Taillon. Boone made the late switch after rain forced the postponement of Monday night’s game.
Terry Francona, the manager of Cleveland’s baseball team, decided to stick with Aaron Civale despite the fact that 2020 Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber was available but on short rest. Civale struggled to throw strikes, and the Guardians were never able to recover after Stanton hit a three-run homer after only 21 pitches had been thrown in the game.
In the first game of the AL Championship Series, which starts at Houston on Wednesday night, Taillon will go up against Justin Verlander. The AL championship game is between the Astros (106 wins) and the Yankees (99 wins). This is different from the NL championship game, which is between wild-card teams San Diego and Philadelphia.
In 2017, Houston won the championship series against the Yankees in seven games, and in 2019, they won the series in six games. It was later discovered that the Houston Astros had used a video camera to signal opposing pitchers’ pitches to their batters while on their way to winning their first World Series championship in 2017.
Cortes won the game with a dominant performance, allowing just three hits over the course of five innings.
“Just a cherry on top,” Cortes said.
Jonathan Loáisiga, Clay Holmes, and Wandy Peralta finished with relief work that allowed five hits but no runs.
“Just the legend of Nestor,” Boone said, “Honestly going in, I would have been really excited about 10 batters.”
The bullpen was able to put an end to it after Cortes had already given him more than that. Following victories in the regular season, the New York Yankees formed a line and shook hands across the field as the sellout crowd of 48,178 fans cheered them on.
Aaron Hicks may not be available for the AL East champion New York Yankees’ game in Houston, where they are attempting to win their 28th championship and first since 2009. After colliding with rookie shortstop Oswaldo Cabrera in the third inning, the left fielder was forced to leave the game after sustaining an injury to his left knee.
After the rain stopped, the game started with left and center fields bathed in brilliant sunshine on an afternoon with a temperature of 57 degrees. As the game started, fans began booing Naylor, who drew criticism for his “rock the baby” homer celebration against Gerrit Cole on Sunday. They taunted him with rocking gestures and shoutings of “Who’s Your Daddy!”
Cortes, who is beloved by the fans for his unique hesitation delivery, completed 61 pitches, allowed one run, struck out two batters, and walked one batter.
Stanton and Judge both hit two home runs during the series, which led to New York outhitting Cleveland 9-3 in home runs and scoring 16 of its 20 runs on long balls. Judge broke the tie held by Yogi Berra, Moose Skowron, Stanton, Didi Gregorius, and Troy O’Leary to become the first player to hit four home runs in a winner-take-all postseason game.
Torres started the game off by walking after seeing four pitches, Judge struck out looking at a full-count curveball, and Civale pitched to Rizzo and hit him in the left thigh with the ball.
Stanton’s at-bat began with an outside curveball thrown in the dirt by Civale, and then pitching coach Carl Willis went out to the mound with him. The cutter that Civale threw missed both low and outside of the strike zone. Stanton hit a homer that traveled 379 feet toward the right-field porch. This is a drive that would only be considered a home run in three of the 30 major league ballparks.
Civale finished his outing after facing just one more batter, which was Josh Donaldson, who hit an infield single.
In the second inning, Judge connected with a curveball thrown by left-handed pitcher Sam Hentges for his 13th home run of the postseason. The drive went to the right side of the field. When both Stanton and Judge hit home runs in the same game, the Yankees have a 27-2 record.
The play that hurt Hicks, a bloop single down the left-field line by rookie Steven Kwan, was followed by a sacrifice fly by Cleveland’s José Ramrez in the third. In the series, Kwan went 9 for 21 (.429).
UP NEXT
The Yankees were expected to arrive in Houston late on Tuesday night in preparation for the first game of the AL Championship Series.
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