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.
