Yankees top Indians, force Game 5
Luis Severino bounced back from his playoff debacle, slumping Aaron Judge delivered a big hit and the New York Yankees took advantage of shoddy defence by Cleveland to beat the Indians, 7-3, on Monday night and push their American League Division Series to a decisive Game 5.
Gary Sanchez homered and Judge laced an early two-run double for his only hit of the series to go with 12 strikeouts in 15 at-bats.
Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer struggled on three days’ rest and was chased in the second inning. But it was on the wet Yankee Stadium field where the Indians really flopped, committing a season-high four errors that marked a franchise record for a post-season game and led to six unearned runs. The defending AL champions made only 76 errors all season, the lowest total in Major League Baseball.
After preventing a three-game sweep with a 1-0 win Sunday night, the wild-card Yankees will start CC Sabathia against his original team in Game 5 at Cleveland on Wednesday. Indians ace Corey Kluber gets the ball in a rematch from Game 2, when he was hit hard by New York.
The winner will face Houston in the AL Championship Series after the Astros finished off Boston in four games earlier Monday to win their ALDS.
Just taking two in a row to send the series back to Cleveland was no small feat for the Yankees. The last time the Indians lost consecutive games was Aug. 22-23 at home against Boston, just before starting their AL-record 22-game winning streak. From that point on, Cleveland had gone 35-4 before arriving at Yankee Stadium for Game 3 of the ALDS.
Severino got only one out in the wild-card game against Minnesota last Tuesday, but was bailed out by his teammates as New York advanced with an 8-4 victory. This time, the 23-year-old ace was determined to come through, and he did.
Handed an early 5-0 lead, the right-hander struck out nine in seven innings and gave up four hits.