New York Yankees 4, Cleveland Guardians 3
NEW YORK — Willie Calhoun hit a single that tied the game in the ninth inning, and Jose Trevino hit a single that ended the game in the tenth. This gave the Yankees a 4-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday night, even though two more New York players got hurt.
Harrison Bader, the Yankees’ center fielder, left after a contact with Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the ninth inning. As a pinch runner, Oswald Peraza also left after hurting his ankle. Bader had just come off the injured list the day before.
“I think Harrison is going to be fine,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Calhoun and Jake Bauers both hit home runs off of Shane Bieber in the fifth, helping the Yankees come back from being down 2-0 early on.
The score was tied with two outs in the top of the ninth, and Ron Marinaccio had just gotten five straight outs. Boone went to the field and brought in Clay Holmes as some fans booed the Yankees manager.
Myles Straw hit a ball to left-center that dropped for a double right in front of Kiner-Falefa, who was playing left field for the first time since 2015 in the minor leagues.
Oscar Gonzalez, who was hitting as a pinch-hitter, hit a single that fell between Kiner-Falefa, Bader, and shortstop Anthony Volpe, 240 feet from home plate. On the play, Kiner-Falefa and Bader ran into each other.
Fans shouted “Fire Boone!” because the Yankees haven’t been playing well lately.
All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase gave Anthony Rizzo a single to start the bottom half. Peraza ran for Rizzo, stole second, and hurt his ankle. Aaron Hicks took his place, and when Calhoun hit a single, Hicks scored.
Clase failed to make a save for the third time in 10 opportunities.
In the 10th, Albert Abreu (1-0) got Josh Naylor to hit into a double play, which ended the game.
The default runner was already on second base when Trevor Stephan (1-1) walked Bauers to start the game, and Kiner-Falefa made a sacrifice.
On Stephan’s third straight slider, Trevino, the last player on the Yankees’ bench who wasn’t a pitcher, hit a single to center over the drawn-in infield. This made the Yankees’ record 17-15.
Cleveland has lost 11 of its last 16 games and five straight series.
In eight innings, Bieber gave up five hits and threw 93 pitches.
After playing for 16 days in a row, New York gets a day off. On Friday, they play at the top team in the big league, Tampa Bay. This is the first of seven games in 10 days against the Rays.
Bieber got six of the first 12 hitters for New York to hit his first pitch.
Calhoun hit his second home run in a row. In the fifth inning, his first hit, a cutter, was caught by a fan in right field with a backhand catch on Beiber’s 36th pitch. After two outs, Bauers hit his first home run since September 19, 2021, when he was with Seattle. He did this by hitting a pitch into the short porch in right field.
Bauers started in right field. It was his first game since he hurt his right knee when he crashed into the wall while making a catch in the first inning of his Yankees debut Saturday at Texas.
In the first, Cleveland scored two unearned runs because Gleyber Torres threw past first base while trying to finish a possible double play, and Rizzo made an error when he let José Ramrez’s grounder bounce off his hand. Josh Bell and Andrés Giménez then hit singles that drove in runs.
In seven games, Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt still hasn’t won a game. In 4 1/3 innings, he gave up two unearned runs and six hits, which brought his ERA down to 5.83.
In the eighth inning, with one out and a runner on third for New York, Volpe hit a ground ball to Ramrez, who was playing in at third. He threw home just in time for Kiner-Falefa to be caught by Cam Gallagher.
UP NEXT
Yankees right-handed pitcher Jhony Brito (2-3, 5.56 ERA) will start the first game of the series against Tampa Bay on Friday. He will be followed by Domingo Germán and Gerrit Cole.
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