New season set to begin for Indians

CLEVELAND They ran away with their division again, and streaked to history, 102 wins and homefield advantage throughout the AL playoffs. The Cleveland Indians have had a special season.

A new one, the only one, is about to begin.

Heartbroken after coming up a little short last year against the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland figured to make it to October for another swing at ending a World Series drought stretching back to 1948.

The Indians are back, but there’s now a 6-foot-7, 280-pound baseball-bashing behemoth standing in their way. Behold Aaron Judge. On the same field where their magical 2016 post-season ended on Nov. 2 in a light rain and extra innings, the Indians will open the Division Series on Thursday night against Judge and the New York Yankees, who rallied to beat the Minnesota Twins in the AL wild-card game.

Unaffected by a larger stage, Judge hit a two-run homer in his playoff debut as the Yankees overcame a 3-0 deficit in the first inning and won their first post-season game in five years to earn a best-of-five matchup against the defending AL champions — and the team favoured to win it all.

“We’re not done yet,” Judge said after the 8-4 win at Yankee Stadium. “We’ve just got to keep it rolling in Cleveland.” Judge and his teammates capped a travel day with a workout at Progressive Field, where both he and Todd Frazier hit tape-measure shots into the vacant left-field bleachers during batting practice.