Yankees at the brink after 13-inning thriller
Cleveland closes in on ALDS sweep, as does Houston, while Cubs open with win
Yan Gomes singled home Austin Jackson from second base with none out in the 13th inning as the Cleveland Indians rallied from five runs down to stun the New York Yankees 9-8 Friday and snatch a 2-0 lead in the AL Division Series.
Jackson drew a leadoff walk in the 13th from Dellin Betances and stole second. Gomes went to a full count before pulling his bouncer just inside the third-base bag, easily scoring Jackson. The Indians poured out of their dugout to mob Gomes, who ended the five-hour, eight-minute thriller.
Cleveland posted its biggest comeback win in post-season history, overcoming an 8-3 deficit, a terrible start by ace Corey Kluber and a potentially severe injury to slugger Edwin Encarnacion.
Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the sixth to rally Cleveland, right after a close call on a hit-bypitch the Yankees didn’t challenge.
Jay Bruce connected for a solo shot in the Cleveland eighth that made it 8-8.
New York had its chances late, but the Yankees stranded the goahead run at third in the ninth and 10th — and had pinch-runner Ronald Torreyes picked off at second in the 11th by Gomes from the behind the plate.
Cleveland will try for a sweep in Game 3 on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. Carlos Carrasco is set to start for the Indians against Masahiro Tanaka.
As they’ve done so many times in a season becoming more special by the day, the defending AL champions battled back and can now put the Yankees away in New York.
Josh Tomlin, who was scheduled to start later in the series, pitched two perfect innings for the win.
Aaron Hicks hit a three-run homer off Kluber and Gary Sanchez and Greg Bird hit two-run shots for the Yankees.
CUBS 3, NATIONALS 0
At Washington, Kyle Hendricks out-pitched Stephen Strasburg and the Chicago Cubs opened defence of their first World Series title in 108 years by beating the Washington Nationals 3-0 Friday in Game 1 of their NL Division Series.
Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo produced RBI singles in the sixth inning for the first two hits off an otherwise-dominant Strasburg. Hendricks was even better, giving up only two singles in seven strong innings.
Rizzo added an RBI double off reliever Ryan Madson in the eighth. Carl Edwards Jr. threw a perfect inning and Wade Davis finished the two-hitter for a save.
Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Saturday, with Jon Lester set to start for Chicago against fellow left-hander Gio Gonzalez.
ASTROS 8, RED SOX 2
At Houston, Carlos Correa homered, doubled and drove in four runs, Jose Altuve got two more hits and the Astros battered the Boston Red Sox 8-2 Friday to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the AL Division Series.
George Springer also homered to back Dallas Keuchel in Houston’s second straight romp by the exact same score.
“One through nine, everybody can do damage, everybody can go deep,” Correa said. “That’s the good thing about our lineup, there’s no holes in our lineup, and we feel very confident no matter if we went 0-for-4 the day before or if we went 4-for-4.”
The Astros will go for a sweep in the best-of-five matchup Sunday at Fenway Park, a year after Boston was swept in the ALDS by Cleveland. Brad Peacock (13-2) starts for Houston against Doug Fister (5-9).