NEW YORK — Nestor Cortes, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge are not done yet. Cortes gave a stellar start on short rest and the Yankees sluggers hammered homers as the Bombers kept their season alive Tuesday. Stanton’s three-run homer in the first got the Yankees rolling to a 5-1 win over the Guardians in the decisive Game 5 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium.
The Bombers won the best-of-five series 3-2 and advanced to the AL Championship Series to face the Astros. The Yankees have little time to celebrate this, their sixth ALDS Game 5 win in franchise history. After Monday night’s weather debacle, which pushed the deciding game back to Tuesday evening, the Bombers had to fly straight to Houston Tuesday night and face their postseason nemesis Astros in Game 1 of the ALCS less than 24 hours later. It is the Yankees’ 18th trip to the Championship Series, the most all-time. It will be their third time in the last six years, and they have lost to the Astros each time.
Jameson Taillon will start Game 1 for the Yankees at MinuteMaid Park, where the Astros had a casual workout Tuesday and slept in their own beds. The Yankees will have to make roster decisions and go over the work from the two advance scouts, who spent the last month watching the Astros.
“That definitely falls under the good problems to have,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s how we’re looking at it. I mean we have some roster decisions at that point and advance tomorrow in Houston. Sign us all up for it.”
Cortes was given Game 5 after Monday night’s game was postponed after a long delay, which was bungled by MLB and the Yankees. The series extending to the eighth day allowed Cortes to come back on three days’ rest, giving the Yankees five efficient and solid innings. He allowed one run on three hits. He walked one and struck out two. He needed 61 pitches to get through five innings, one shy of the fewest in his career to get to that point.
The extra day also got the Yankees bullpen sharpened up. Jonathan Loaisiga gave them two scoreless innings and Clay Holmes threw a scoreless inning before Wandy Peralta closed with his fourth appearance in five days.
Stanton had given Cortes a 3-0 lead to work with after the first and Judge helped extend it. That is a good sign for the Yankees heading into the ALCS since Judge and Stanton had been struggling. Judge was 2-for-16 with a home run and nine strikeouts coming into Tuesday’s game and Stanton was 1-for-12 with a homer and five strikeouts.
It is the fourth time that Judge and Stanton have homered in the same postseason game, the most for a pair of teammates in Yankees history.
According to ESPN, Stanton’s 11th career postseason home run tied Nelson Cruz for the second most within a player’s first 25 playoff games. Carlos Beltran had 13. It was Stanton’s 23rd postseason game.
Aside from the concern about the Yankees running into the ALCS on fumes, they may be without an experienced left fielder. Aaron Hicks collided with Oswaldo Cabrera in the second inning and left the game with a knee injury. He was taken to the hospital for imaging. With Andrew Benintendi on the injured list, the Yankees options in left are Stanton, who hasn’t played the field since an Achilles injury in July, Matt Carpenter, who is just back from a fractured foot, Marwin Gonzalez or Cabrera.
But those are Wednesday’s problems. Tuesday night, the Yankees fans were just glad that they have at least one more series with Judge as the face of their franchise.
Tuesday was really the first time that Judge and the Yankees fans had to think about this possibly being the last game he played here in pinstripes. The slugger turned down a contract extension on Opening Day — his self-imposed deadline ― that would have been worth over $30 million in annual average value. The Yankees avoided going to arbitration with Judge at the last minute, but Judge has made good on his decision to bet on himself.
The Giants, near his California home, have been rumored as a landing spot for Judge. The Red Sox, Dodgers and Mets have also been mentioned as possibilities.
Judge led the majors with 62 home runs and a 10.6 WAR, and was tied with the Mets’ Pete Alonso with 131 RBI. The 62 home runs broke a 61-year old American League and Yankees’ single-season home-run record. It is the seventh most ever hit in a single season in baseball history.
