Yankees rebound against Indians to avoid a sweep
Tanaka tosses gem in New York’s win
NEW YORK — Masahiro Tanaka’s seven-inning gem was saved when Aaron Judge prevented a home run in right field, and Greg Bird homered to give the New York Yankees a 1-0 victory against the Cleveland Indians in Game 3 Sunday night, extending their American League Division Series.
Aroldis Chapman got a five-out save as New York avoided a three-game sweep by the defending AL champions.
With two on in the ninth, Chapman struck out cleanup hitter and former Reds teammate Jay Bruce, and Carlos Santanaflied out to center.
The Yankees got a splendid performance from Tanaka in an old-fashioned October pitching duel with Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco. Tanaka got a boost when Judge robbed Francisco Lindor of a tworun homer in the sixth.
The sellout crowd of 48,614 roared when Judge backed up to the wall with his 6-foot7 frame and barely needed to jump to extend his glove above the fence and make the catch, just to the right of the auxiliary scoreboard.
Bird came through with the huge hit New York had to have when he connected against loser Andrew Miller in the seventh.
New York rebounded from a bruising loss Friday in Game 2 that led to heavy criticism of manager Joe Girardi, booed Sunday night by the home crowd during pregame introductions.
Game 4 is Monday night at Yankee Stadium, with young ace Luis Severino scheduled to start for New York. Cleveland might go with Game 1 winner Trevor Bauer on three days’ rest.