NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole survived his “bugaboo”, the long ball, and was sharp in his first playoff start in the Bronx in pinstripes. The Bombers hit two homers to overpower the Guardians and take Game 1 of the American League Division Series 4-1 Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees jumped out to the early lead in the best-of-five game series with homers from Anthony Rizzo and Harrison Bader. They will host the Guardians for Game 2 on Thursday, weather permitting, with Nestor Cortes Jr., who was arguably the Yankees best pitcher this season, on the mound against Guardians’ ace Shane Bieber.
Cole held the Guardians to a run on four hits over 6.1 innings pitched, throwing 101 pitches. He struck out eight and walked one. He left after giving up a single to Myles Straw, a liner off Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s glove with one out in the seventh.
Cole’s outing was a marked improvement over his start against the Red Sox in last season’s Wild Card Game. Then, Cole faced just 12 batters and recorded only six outs as the Yankees fell 6-2 to their rivals. He gave up two home runs and was taken out with two on and no outs in the third inning. Afterward, Cole said he felt “sick to my stomach.”
On Tuesday, he allowed a home run, but unlike so many times this season, he did not allow that or other mistakes unravel him.
“It’s more just making sure we’re prepared, making sure he’s prepared as best he can. Focus a lot on all the good that he’s done this year and even down the stretch. Obviously, avoiding the long balls, which have been a bugaboo,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Monday of Cole preparing to pitch Game 1.
Cole, who allowed a career-high 33 home runs this season, was primed for one of his “big innings,” where mistakes snowball on him and he gets in trouble. After Steven Kwan hit a one-out home run in the third inning, Cole hit Amed Rosario on the hand and Jose Ramirez singled. Josh Naylor reached on a fielder’s choice when Rizzo fielded the ball and threw home, but Rosario held at third. Josh Donaldson’s heads up play got Rosario at home on Oscar Gonzalez’s grounder and Cole struck out Andres Gimenez.
Cole won his third postseason start against Cleveland. He has allowed four runs in 20.1 innings pitched against them in the playoffs. He is now 3-1 with a 3.38 ERA, 41 strikeouts and seven home runs in five postseason starts with the Yankees. It is his first playoff win since Game 1 of the ALDS against the Rays in 2020.
Aaron Judge reached base in the sixth after two strikeouts. After taking the walk, he stole second. Judge was 16-of-18 stealing bases this season. He forced a rushed throw by Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, who tossed it past second, allowing Judge to take third. It didn’t matter. Starter Cal Quantrill tried to throw a second straight cutter to Rizzo, who blistered it into the second deck of the short porch in right field for his eighth career postseason home run.
Everyone knew the Guardians could never slug it out with the Yankees, who were built to win on power pitching and stringing together hits.
The Yankees won five of six against the Guardians in the regular season, outscoring Cleveland 38 to 14 with nearly twice as many homers, 12 to 7. The Yankees hit 254 homers this season, the most in MLB. That’s more than double the Guardians, who hit 127. That is the second fewest in the majors this season.
While Judge, who set an AL and Yankees’ home run record this season with 62, was held in the park, the Yankees got power from an unexpected place.
In the bottom of the third, Bader turned on a sinker that did not sink and drilled it into left-center field in the bottom of the third. It was his first home run since the Yankees acquired him at the trade deadline. The defense-first center fielder, who spent three months on the injured list this season, last hit a home run June 2 with the Cardinals against the Cubs.
That 406-foot shot tied the game after Kwan, who hit just five homers this season, hammered a 2-0, thigh-high fastball from Cole 360 feet to right field. It was the seventh straight playoff game Cole has allowed a home run, the longest streak in playoff history.
Kiner-Falefa, who had bobbled a ball in the first for an error, singled and took third when the ball got under right fielder Gonzalez’s glove. He scored on Jose Trevino’s sacrifice fly.
Donaldson thought he had broken the tie in the bottom of the fifth. He jumped on a sinker and hit it to right field, going into his home run trot. The ball, however, bounced off the right field wall, and Donaldson was thrown out.
These two teams have met in the postseason on five previous occasions.
The Yankees swept the best-of-three in the 2020 AL Wild Card Series. The underdog Yankees, who won the Wild Card Game, knocked off a 102-win Cleveland team after losing the first two games in the 2017 ALDS. In 2007, Cleveland upset the Yankees in four games, in what is known as the Midges series. Despite losing two of the first three games in the series, the Yankees rallied to win in six in the 1998 ALCS. Cleveland rallied from a 2-1 series’ deficit to win in five games in 1997.
