Aaron Judge on Tuesday sent the ball soaring toward Monument Park and Gleyber Torres tagged up at first base.
“That was disrespect out of Gleyber, man,” Judge said with a smile. “He’s seen me hit 58 of those things this year.”
Judge’s first home run of the MLB post-season broke the tension, a two-run, seventh-inning drive that helped boost the New York Yankees over the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 for a 2-0 American League Championship Series lead.
Photo: AFP
“I’m a little disappointed in Gleyber for not knowing Judge’s pop there,” Anthony Rizzo said. “We were ribbing him a lot about that. It’s a big swing for Judgey.”
Judge, who entered with just one RBI in the playoffs, hit a sacrifice fly in a two-run second that put the Yankees ahead 3-0 after Cleveland intentionally walked Juan Soto to load the bases.
“You want to try to get a double-play ball,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “You want to try to get two outs with one pitch.”
Photo: AFP
Judge, who led the major leagues with 58 homers and 144 RBIs, was understanding.
“I would probably walk him, too,” he said.
With New York leading 4-2 lead in the seventh inning, the likely AL MVP drove a fastball at the letters from Hunter Gaddis about 126m to center for his 14th career post-season home run.
“It was a big swing to kind of give us that cushion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “The bench was pretty pumped when that happened.”
Judge was also good-natured about Torres’ decision to tag up.
“You never know on these windy, chilly nights what that ball is going to do when you hit it to center here, but the ghosts were pulling out there to Monument Park, that’s for sure,” he said.
In a matchup of aces who had off nights, Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee got just four outs in the shortest start of his professional career, while an erratic Gerrit Cole was chased after four walks in 4-1/3 innings.
“Just got to do better, got to do better,” the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner said.
Winner Clay Holmes, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle combined for 3-2/3 scoreless innings.
Jose Ramirez hit a ninth-inning home run off Luke Weaver, just the second earned run New York’s bullpen has allowed over 23-1/3 innings in six post-season games.
Torres reached base leading off for the fifth time in the playoffs and had three hits.
Rizzo had two hits and is three for seven in two games since returning from a pair of fractured fingers that caused him to miss the Division Series.
Rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio and right fielder Will Brennan committed run-scoring errors for the Guardians. Rocchio dropped Judge’s first-inning popup, allowing Torres to score.
“No excuse, I need to make that play,” Rocchio said through an interpreter. “I thought I was under the ball and last minute I was leaning towards second base.”
After Cleveland closed to 3-2, Brennan bobbled the ball when he tried for a barehand pickup of Rizzo’s sixth-inning double that caromed off the low wall down the right-field line. Anthony Volpe, who had been on first, sprinted home.
Alex Verdugo had a opposite-field RBI double in the two-run second that glanced off a shoulder of left-field umpire Vic Carapazza and went down the line.
Cole escaped two-on, one-out trouble in the third and then a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth when pinch-hitter David Fry fouled out and Rocchio took a knuckle curve at the top of the strike zone for a called third strike in a nine-pitch at-bat.
Cleveland cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fifth when Josh Naylor hit a sacrifice fly and, after Holmes relieved with the bases loaded, Will Brennan grounded into a run-scoring forceout. Holmes struck out Austin Hedges on low sinker to leave the bases loaded.
“They kind of made a little push there and we were able to stop it,” Holmes said.
Cleveland went none for seven with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners.
“We’re one swing of the bat away from taking the lead in that game,” Vogt said. “We’re one swing of the bat from being right back in it. That is who we are. We don’t quit. We just need to keep being us.”
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