NONE RISE, YANKS FALL
Can’t figure out Indians’ Bauer in Game 1, and now Tribe ace looms
CLEVELAND — The Yankees were dominated by Trevor Bauer in Game 1. And with Corey Kluber — the probable 2017 Cy Young award-winner — on deck for Game 2, it already feels like the Bronx Bombers are in deep trouble. While it’s not over yet, it felt like the Yankees needed to win their ALDS opener to give themselves a chance — especially given that Terry Francona smartly decided to push Kluber back to the second game of the series in order to have him ready on regular rest for a potential Game 5 — or Game 1 of the ALCS should his team take care of business early. But Bauer, who finished the regular season going 10-1 with a 2.16 ERA in his last 14 games (13 starts), yielded just two hits over 6.2 shutout innings, using his fastballcurveball mix to near perfection in the Tribe’s 4-0 victory over the Bombers on Thursday night at Progressive Field.
He took a no-hit bid into the sixth before Aaron Hicks broke it up with a oneout double.
“His breaking ball was as good as we’ve seen it, and he’s been pitching better,” Joe Girardi said. “We didn’t get many free baserunners. He was really good.”
Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorius combined to go 7-for-15 with three homers in the Yankees’ wild-card victory on Tuesday. But that quartet went hitless in 15 at-bats on Thursday night, with only Gardner reaching base once via a walk.
Judge struck out four times — including twice looking and once with two on to end the eighth.
“We’ve got to step up offensively,” Todd Frazier said.
In three starts against Bauer — including two in the regular season — the Yankees have mustered just two runs in 19.2 innings. He dominated them then, and he dominated them this time around, too, making them look like a tired group.
Also, several Bombers felt like homeplate umpire Vic Carapazza’s strike zone favored the 26-year-old righty.
“I thought he seemed to be getting some calls in and out that probably could’ve gone either way,” Brett Gardner said. “I thought they were off the plate,” Judge said of his two looking Ks.
But as Chase Headley put it: “I don’t think that was the story of the game, and I certainly don’t want that to be the focus because he did a good job. It’s not like the pitches guys disagreed with were a foot off the plate. That type of strike zone helped him out. He was getting the high strike which with his stuff is helpful for him, but I didn’t think it was an overly lopsided strike zone.” Exactly. And now, they get Kluber, who went 18-4 with a 2.25 ERA — including a 2-0 mark with a 1.59 ERA against the Bombers. As a team, the Yankees are batting .155/.201/.252 lifetime versus the 31-yearold righty.
“We’ve seen him before,” Gardner said. “The last time we faced him he obviously had his way with us. He’s one of the best — if not the best pitcher in the league — and over the course of the series we’re going to have to face him sometime, so we just need to come out (Friday) and have better at-bats and get a little bit going.” That’s certainly easier said than done. “You have to battle against the aces — grind it out, make every out tough and make them work for everything they get,” Headley said. “Hopefully you wear him down, because that’s usually the way you get to aces.”
Francona held his best ace back on Thursday night, perhaps also taking advantage of the Yankees putting in long hours to advance two evenings earlier while burning their own regular-season ace, Luis Severino, in the process.
Or maybe the Indians manager simply figured his team is so good, what does it even matter?
Either way, it worked, with Bauer dealing like an ace himself, dominating the Bombers once again, and putting the underdogs right up against the ropes from the outset. And with Corey Kluber looming on Friday evening, this series could be over pretty quickly.