You’ve heard the ol’ expression that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. The Yankees were good and lucky as they managed to overcome some of their bad habits that were costly during the regular season.
Aaron Judge got off the schneid with his first home run of this post season and the bullpen continued to shine as the Yankees held off the Guardians, 6-3 in game 2 of the American League Championship Series before 47,054 at Yankee Stadium last night.
Judge had gone 66 at bats at the Stadium without a home run but he was able to square up a 95 mph, four seam fastball from Guardians reliever Hunter Gaddis for a John Sterling special. It was high and far enough for a huge two run shot that gave the Yankees some breathing room in the seventh with a four run lead.
Guardians center fielder Lane Thomas drifted and was hoping to have a chance to make a play but the ball kept carrying and caromed off the barrier that divides the Yankee bullpen and Monument Park.
“You never know on these windy, chilly nights what that ball’s gonna do when you hit to center here, but the ghosts were pulling out to Monument Park, that’s for sure,” said Judge.
Gleyber Torres was on first base and scored ahead of Judge but he took some good natured ribbing because he went back to tag up.
“He [Torres] did that this year earlier too on one I hit, so I was pretty pissed then, I was pretty pissed again,” Judge said, tongue in cheek.
The Guardians looked outmatched in game one and game two began the same way.
The Yankees wasted no time in mounting a threat against Guardians starter Tanner Bibee in the bottom of the first. Torres lined a double to left and moved to third on Juan Soto’s single.
Torres has thrived in the lead off spot with a slash line of .292/.433/.500 for an OPS of .933 in six games.
“He’s [Torres] just been a complete catalyst for us, good at bat after good at bat, consistently day in and day out for going on a few months,” said Boone.
Judge stepped to the plate and with the crowd expecting some fireworks, he hit a high pop up to the infield. Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio got under it and appeared to be ready to make the catch but he dropped it as Torres scored and Soto took second.
Bibee buckled down and limited the damage when he struck out the struggling Austin Wells and Jazz Chisholm, sandwiched around a long foul fly to right by Giancarlo Stanton that was caught by Will Brennan who made a nice catch while moving towards the stands.
The Yankees mounted another threat in the second.
After Anthony Volpe and Anthony Rizzo led off with back to back singles, Alex Verdugo lined a run scoring double to left.
The Yankees had a run in and runners on second and third with nobody out, but after Torres popped out to first, the Guardians made an eye opening decision to intentionally walk Soto to pitch to Judge with the bases loaded with the hope of getting a double play.
“You gotta pick your poison sometimes and they were up against it a little bit in that situation and going to [Cade] Smith that early in the game, down three,” Manager Aaron Boone said. “You need something to go really well to keep yourself in the game so sometimes you gotta take a shot that’s a little bit unconventional.”
Guardians Manager Steven Vogt summoned Cade Smith with the first of his numerous pitching changes but Judge spoiled the strategy somewhat when he lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Rizzo and give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
Gerrit Cole got through four scoreless innings but faltered in the fifth.
The Guardians loaded the bases with nobody out on two singles and a walk to Jose Ramirez. Josh Naylor, who has feasted on Cole, drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly to right.
After Thomas walked to re-load the bases, Boone lifed Cole and went to Clay Holmes to put out the fire.
Holmes got Brennan on a force out at second as the second run scored. After the former Yankee closer walked Andres Gimenez to load the bases for a third time in the inning, he struck out Austin Hedges to keep the lead.
The Yankees bad habits were on full display in the bottom of the sixth as their penchant for running themselves out of innings surfaced once again.
Chisholm led off with a double against Guardians left hander Erik Sabrowski and Volpe walked to put two runners on with nobody out.
With Rizzo at the plate, Chisholm took off early for third. Sabrowski calmly stepped off the mound and threw to second as Chisholm was tagged out trying to get back. The Yankees challenged the call but it stood after a review.
Rizzo salvaged the inning as he lined a ball down the right field line for a double. Volpe took third and was able to score when Brennan made an error when he flubbed trying to pick the ball up to make a throw.
After Verdugo flied out, the Guardians went to Pedro Avila to face Torres. Avila threw his second pitch in the dirt and Rizzo tried to go to third but made the second base running gaffe of the inning as he was thrown out trying to advance.
Judge’s home run was a welcome sight for the Yankees who are managing to win but have had trouble breaking open games when the opportunities have been there.
“That was a big swing to kinda give us that cushion,” Boone said. “I think the bench was pretty pumped when that happened.”
Holmes, who got the win, Tim Hill, Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver, who gave up only a solo home run to Ramirez in the ninth, combined for 4 1/3 innings pitched.
In six post season games, the Yankees bullpen has given up two earned runs in 23 innings pitched.
The Guardians came into the series with the vaunted bullpen but Vogt used four relievers in game one and seven relievers in game two, none of them named Emmanuel Clase, their dominant closer.
So the Yankees head to Cleveland needing two more wins to punch their ticket to their first World Series appearance in 15 years, but they’re cautiously optimistic.
“We need two more here but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We just talked about it, one game at a time,” said Boone.
Judge has been close before but he knows not to take anything for granted.
“Guys are excited but we still know there’s a lot of work to be done. We’re playing against a good Cleveland team, all year they battled,” Judge said. “The guys in there are focused, they’re prepared they know what needs to be done.”