Tanaka, Judge helpYankees clinch winning season

Aaron Judge was happy with his first multihit game in nearly two weeks, but it was a defensive gem by teammate Brett Gardner that had the right fielder buzzing.

In a game with a post-season feel, Judge broke out of his slump with two hits and two runs, Gardner made a game-saving catch in centre and the New York Yankees rebounded from their worst home loss of the year with a 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Friday night.

“That was a big-time play,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He didn’t have to leave his feet or anything like that, but you’re not going to see a lot of better plays — especially in that spot.”

With one out in the eighth inning and Tyler Naquin on second in a onerun game, Francisco Lindor hit a 374foot drive off Zack Britton to deep right-centre field. Gardner raced back, made the grab and held onto the ball as he ran into the fence in front of the Yankees’ bullpen.

“Ten out of 10 times I know he’s going to make that play,” Judge said. “Where he was positioned, the jump he got and from my view how he was tracking it down — I know he had a good bead on it, and he saved the game for us.”

Masahiro Tanaka pitched effectively into the seventh and New York (82-42) clinched its 27th consecutive winning record since 1993, the second-longest streak in major league history behind the Yankees’ run of 39 seasons from 1926-64.

Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres each had an RBI single for the AL East leaders, who increased their cushion to 10 1/2 games over Tampa Bay. They won for the 15th time in 18 tries and bounced right back from a 19-5 defeat Thursday night in the opener of this four-game series.

“It was a big play,” Gardner said. “Obviously if I don’t get to it, there’s no telling how the rest of the game unfolds.”

Jose Ramirez and Yasiel Puig homered for the Indians, who dropped 1 1/2 games behind the firstplace Twins in the AL Central. Minnesota won 4-3 at Texas.

The Indians, leading the wild-card standings, lost for just the fourth time in 19 road games. They are a big league-best 45-19 since June 4.

“Nobody expected this series is going to be easy for us,” Puig said. “This is a good team that we faced.”

Tanaka (9-6) tossed 6 1/3 solid innings, allowing two runs and four hits — three to the red-hot Ramirez. The right-hander struck out two, walked none and got 10 outs on grounders.