Fresh off a middling 3-3 road trip, the Yankees returned home and pummeled the Cleveland Guardians over the weekend, sweeping them to the tune of 4-1, 5-4, 10-2 to move to 10-6 on the season and first place in the AL East. Cleveland entered atop the AL Central and left a game under .500 at 7-8. The series displayed a manifesting display of hitting, pitching, and even littering by New York fans after an exhilarating second game that featured a walk-off win. It led to increased security by the short porch in the right-field seats (I was a witness to it) for the finale.
Jamison Tallion toed the rubber for the Yankees on Friday, pitched a splendid five innings of one-run ball, and received some help from the center field arm of Aaron Judge, who captured Andre Gimmnez going from first to third. Judge, who is banking on a great walk year before free agency this offseason, took Cleveland starter Eli Morgan deep in the third for two before he capped the evening scoring by depositing a screaming line drive into the right-field seats, providing the insurance the Yankees were seeking. Also pulling through offensively was Isaiah-Kiner-Falefa, whose RBI single in the fourth increased the advantage to 3-1. After Jamison departed, Micheal King took over and blazed through three scoreless frames, where he turned aside eight Guardians, including the last seven straight, igniting the Yankee stadium crowd. It effectively bridged the gap to the ninth, where Aroldis Chapman polished off his fourth save of the season and sealed the 4-1 victory.
In the intermediate tilt, Nestor Cortes JR continued his burgeoning story via the backend of the Yankees rotation by persisting six innings, with the lone conspicuous aberration being a two-run bomb by Josh Naylor in the fifth. After using “small ball” to knot the game off of Cal Quantrill in the fifth, off of an RBI single by Isaiah Kiner Falefa and a Kyle Higashioka sac fly, Josh Donaldson pimped a home run in the seventh to give New York the 3-2 lead. But in the eighth, Austin Hedges silenced the fans temporarily as he granulated a backbreaking big fly to left field, forging the visitors in front 4-3. Down to their last strike against flamethrower Emmanuel Clase, the series seemed destined for a rubber game. However, IKF had other ideas and ensued the impending chaos with a liner to left field that scored Tim Locastro and cinched things at four.
During the play, Guardians star youngster Steven Kwan slammed hard into the wall and was banged up. While he was being attended to, Yankees fans in the area used their mouth for harm and riled up Myles Straw to the juncture. He climbed the fence, saying profanities to the fans’ faces. Kwan was ok, and the game resumed. Gleyber Torres laced a pinch-hit single to right field to score the game-winning run, which unfortunately sent the fans in right field into a litter-frenzy, carelessly chucking beers at Guardians players and umpires looking to defuse the situation. Even Yankees players ran over to calm their fans down.
No love was lost from the incident postgame, where Straw called Yankees fans “classes” before hearing the “boo’s” on Sunday afternoon in the series finale.
Game three saw cooler heads prevail and tamed tempers, but the Bombers ensured they wouldn’t be guarded(pun intended) against the broom for a third straight time this season. In my first appearance at the stadium in three years as a fan, Anthony Rizzo went yard for two in the first. DJ LeMaihue extended his hitting streak to 11 games in the second by pouncing on a misplay by Guardians outfielder Oscar Mercado and bringing in the swift Isaiah-Kiner Falefa for a quick 3-0 New York lead.
The Yankees then busted the game, and Cleveland starter Aaron Civale’s stats open in the third with a three-run frame highlighted by the slumping Joey Gallo’s RBI double. Following the game-breaker, the attention turned to Gerrit Cole, who fought through the ruts of the shortest start of his career last week in Detroit, where he only went 1.2 innings and fired a gem on Sunday. When Aaron Boone signaled to the bullpen, Cole walked off the mound and tipped his cap to the fans, who serenaded him with a thunderous standing ovation, marveling at his staggering 6.2 innings, 0 runs, four hits, one walk, and nine strikeouts pitching line.
As the cherry on top, DJ blasted home a pair in the sixth, and Tim Locastro mashed his first round-tripper for a 10-0 Yankees margin which would finish at 10-2 after the Guardians scored two pity runs in the ninth.
Overall, it was the complete performance by an otherwise scuffling offense and ace this season.
As Boone said, it was indeed “nice” to finally get a sweep, and it’s extra nice that the team they swept was atop their division entering the weekend.
3 STARS OF THE SERIES:
3. Aaron Judge
2. Gleyber Torres
Isaiah Kiner-Falefa
UP NEXT:
A day off on Monday, and then a three-game set with the rival Baltimore Orioles(6-10) beginning Tuesday at the stadium.
Jordan Lyles(1-1, 3.52 ERA) will go for the Birds against the fiery Luis Severino(1-0, 2.08 ERA) of New York. Game time is at 7:05 PM.
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