Yankees put on show in rout of Cleveland
Aaron Judge smashed a tone- setting, two- run homer on Shane Bieber’s fourth pitch, Gerrit Cole struck out 13 and the New York Yankees opened the AL playoffs with a resounding 12-3 win over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night.
The Yankees made quite a statement in teeing off on Bieber, who was baseball’s best pitcher in the condensed regular season but looked average in his playoff debut.
Judge and the rest of New York’s hitters hadn’t faced Bieber in 2020, but they were well prepared and took some meaty cuts against the 25-year- old ace, who gave up season highs in runs (seven) and hits (nine) over 4 2/3 inningss.
The best- of-three series continues tonight with Carlos Carrasco trying to save Cleveland’s season against Masahiro Tanaka.
When Bieber’s final pitch clanged loudly off the empty left-field bleachers on a tworun homer by Gleyber Torres in the fifth, the Yankees were up 7-2.
Staked to an early lead on Judge’s homer, Cole showed why the Yanks shelled out $324 million for him in the offseason. The right-hander gave up two runs — including Josh Naylor’s homer in the fourth — and six hits in seven innings.
Naylor went 4 for 4 and became the first player with three extra-base hits in his postseason debut.
Cole’s strikeouts were the second-most by a New York pitcher in postseason history. Roger Clemens fanned 15 in Game 4 of the 2000 ALCS.
ASTROS 4, TWINS 1 >> Jose Altuve drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the goahead run in the ninth inning for Houston after a two- out error by shortstop Jorge Polanco, and the Astros beat Minnesota to open their AL playoff series and stretch the Twins’ all-time record postseason losing streak to 17 games.
Manager Dusty Baker’s Astros became the first team in major league history to win a game after reaching the postseason with a losing record.
Game 2 in the best- ofthree wild-card matchup is today at Target Field.
Michael Brantley tacked on a two-run single in the ninth after Sergio Romo issued a full- count walk to the 5-foot-6 Altuve, the 2017 AL MVP who had a quiet season at the plate.
Minnesota’s previous win in the playoffs was notched in New York on Oct. 5, 2004, in Game 1 of the AL division series.
RAYS 3, WLUL JAYS 1 >> Blake Snell took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and the top-seeded Tampa Bay Rays opened the playoffs Tuesday with a win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Manuel Margot hit a tworun homer and Randy Arozarena tripled and scored on a wild pitch to give Snell and a dominant Rays bullpen all the offensive support needed to begin the best-ofthree wild-card matchup.
The AL East champion Rays will try to advance today in Game 2 at Tropicana Field.
Snell allowed just two baserunners until Alejandro Kirk singled leading off the sixth. The 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner allowed one hit and struck out nine — tying a club postseason record — in 5 2/3 innings.
Diego Castillo, Nick Anderson and Pete Fairbanks followed Snell, limiting the Blue Jays to two singles, two doubles and Bo Bichette’s eighth-inning sacrifice fly the rest of the way. TWINS SHLLVL IONALISON WITH EALN INJURY >> Minnesota Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson will miss the best- of-three AL firstround series against Houston because of a nagging injur y to his right calf, and the team included rookie A lex K irilloff on the roster that was set on Tuesday prior to Game 1.
Donaldson missed 30 games this season with a muscle strain and returned to the lineup on Sept. 2, but he was removed f r om F r id ay ’ s game after the first inning with cramping. The 2015 AL MVP award winner worked out with the team on Monday, but he wa s st ill ex per iencin g soreness and unable to fully push off on his leg.
“Didn’t want him to push if he was feeling something that he could potentially do some longterm damage to,” Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said.