YANKEES GET LAST LAUGH!
Beat Cleveland in wild-card thriller, face Rays next in ALDS
CLEVELAND — After a 43-minute waste of time, DJ LeMahieu was standing at the stairs in the dugout, batting helmet on, bat in hand. The grounds crew was still fixing the field and the pitchers had not even come back in from warmups. The man who is known as “The Machine,” to his teammates had enough waiting.
Five hours later, after another rain delay, LeMahieu finally got things moving.
His ground ball up middle pushed across the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth, giving the Yankees a 10-9 win in Game 2 to clinch a sweep of the American League Wild Card Series.
The Yankees advance to the AL Division Series to face the Rays in San Diego next week. The Rays dominated the Yankees 8-2 n 10 games in the regular season.
But as LeMahieu pointed out before the game, this is a whole new season.
“It’s no secret that we were inconsistent this year, kind of all around. But at the same time, like we did a good job of turning the page and playoffs is different ,” LeMahieu said. "Whether we have been inconsistent, we can turn it on and whether you have a great year, you can lose it real quickly.
“So, I just think we’re in a really good spot.”
The Yankees had to battle back after a pair of poorly managed rain delays and they had to overcome Masahiro Tanaka’s worst ever start in the playoffs. Giancarlo Stanton came back from a season lost to injury to hit homers in back-to-back playoff games and also drive in another run on a sacrifice fly. Garry Sanchez, who did not start in Tuesday night’s playoff game after starting 27 straight in the postseason, came back and rewarded Aaron Boone’s seemingly unwavering faith in him with a go-ahead two-run homer and then the game-tying sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Gio Urshela probably had the most emotional comeback of the night.
Cleveland essentially gave up on the smooth-fielding Urshela after that 2017 season, because he could not hit. They dealt him to the Blue Jays for cash, and then the Yankees picked him up in a similar deal in August 2018.
Wednesday night, Urshela came back and made sure everyone in Cleveland saw how much he has grown as a player. After Carlos Carrasco had loaded the bases with a triple to Aaron Hicks and back-toback walks to Luke Voit and Giancarlo Stanton, who had a solo homer in the second, Cleveland gave the ball to hard-throwing rookie James Karinchak. Urshela worked a full count and then crushed a 96-mile an hour fastball. Knowing this ballpark, Urshela smiled and flipped his bat with a flourish. He pointed into the Yankees dugout and screamed before
turning at first base.
It was clear how much the grand slam meant to Urshela, who has been a completely different player since taking the then-injured Miguel Andujar’s starting third base job last year.
“I guess a lot,” Urshela said of the difference in his game from 2018, when Cleveland traded him for cash to now. “I feel like quite different now, a different player with a different mentality.”
The game had been delayed for 43 minutes by the threat of rain, which never came before the field was prepared and play was started. Then the rains began as the teams played 17 minutes before the game was delayed again. According to an industry source, MLB would make the final decision on rain delays “in consultation with the clubs.”
Still, Aaron Boone looked furious when the game was delayed.
Tanaka had allowed a run on a Jose Ramirez double before the game was delayed. After a 33-minute second delay, he gave up three more on a two run-double to Josh Naylor and an RBI-single to Roberto Perez. Tanaka allowed a career-postseason high six earned runs in four innings of work, his shortest outing in the playoffs.
Instead of going through his usual bullpen progression, Boone went to Chad Green in the fifth to get out of a jam. Green gave up a tworun, game-tying double and then Boone went to set-up man Zack Britton, who walked two with two-outs in the seventh. So Boone tried to use Jonathan Loaisiga to get out of that jam, but the right-hander hung a curveball and gave up a two-run double to Jordan Luplow to tie the game.