Bauer stars for Cleveland
CLEVELAND» Trevor Bauer made Aaron Judge look silly, and he made his manager look like a genius.
Named a surprise starter for Game 1, Bauer chopped Judge and New York’s other big bats down to size, and Jay Bruce drove in three runs as the Cleveland Indians began chasing their first World Series title in 69 years with a 4-0 win over the Yankees on Thursday night in the opener of their AL division series.
Bauer struck out Judge three times, twice getting the league MVP candidate looking. He allowed just two hits in 6M innings before manager Terry Francona, who chose to start the right-hander over ace Corey Kluber, turned to baseball’s best bullpen, using Andrew Miller and closer Cody Allen to finish the three-hitter.
Allen came in with two on and two outs in the eighth to face Judge, who struck out for the fourth time and angrily snatched at his bat in frustration, and finished for a save.
Bruce connected for a tworun homer in the fourth off Sonny Gray and added a sacrifice fly in the fifth as the Indians began a journey to try and end the majors’ longest Series title drought.
Eyebrows were raised when Francona said he was going with Bauer instead of Kluber.
“Trevor from pitch one, he had his breaking ball early, and he had a good one,” Francona said. “He had his life on his fastball. I thought he pitched a terrific game.”
Kluber, an 18-game winner during the regular season, will start Game 2 on Friday against CC Sabathia.
Coming off their win over Minnesota in the wild-card game Tuesday, when Judge homered in his playoff debut, the Yankees came in with momentum.
But Bauer stopped the Bronx Bombers in their tracks.
He struck out eight and took a no-hitter into the sixth before Aaron Hicks doubled with one out. It was the longest no-hit bid by a Cleveland pitcher in the postseason, bettering Hall of Famers Bob Feller (1948) and Early Wynn (1954), who both went four innings.
Bauer improved to 3-0 this season against the Yankees.
“His curveball was really good,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s as good as we’ve seen it, and he’s been pitching better. You look at his second half, and he had better command. We didn’t get many free baserunners, which we have in the past off of him, and he was really good.”
Bauer struck out Judge in the first watching a curveball before fanning Gary Sanchez with a pitch way off the plate.
Bauer, who is 11-1 in his last 14 starts, struck out Judge again in the fourth, but the all-star reached on a wild pitch.
Bauer got help from all-star second baseman-turned-center fielder Jason Kipnis, who made a diving catch to rob Chase Headley in the third. As Kipnis slowly got to his feet, Bauer raised both arms above his head, pumped his fist and screamed to salute his teammate.
“All I’ve been hearing is that I shouldn’t be playing center field,” Kipnis said. “That was a fun one to run down and be a part of. I had a good time. I’m very happy.”
Bruce gave the Indians a 3-0 lead in the fourth with a towering homer to right.
After Edwin Encarnacion walked, Gray came inside with a 0-1 fastball and Bruce got around on it.
The Indians are 43-9 since Bruce arrived in an Aug. 9 trade from the New York Mets.