Yankees win 12-3
Cole strikes out 13 Indians
CLEVELAND — On a night for debates, Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees made quite an opening statement.
Shane Bieber had no rebuttal. Judge smashed a tone-setting, tworun homer on Bieber’s fourth pitch, 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.
Just a few miles from where President Donald Trump and campaign opponent Joe Biden made their cases to the nation in their presidential debate, the Yankees made it look easy in teeing off on Bieber, who was baseball’s best pitcher during 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 innings — his shortest stint since June 9 last season against the Yankees.
“I just felt like the swing decisions were really good,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s the key with Bieber. If you’re going to have a chance against him, you’ve got to make quality swing decisions and I felt like the guys did that all night long.”
The best-of-three series continues today 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 two-run homer by Gleyber Torres in the fifth, the Yankees were up 7-2 and had delivered a boisterous postseason message to the rest of baseball: Don’t forget us.
Bieber then handed the ball to acting Indians manager Sandy Alomar Jr. and walked slowly toward Cleveland’s dugout, seemingly carrying all of the city’s hopes for a long run with him. The Indians have lost seven straight playoff games.
“He was too excited,” Alomar said of Bieber. “First postseason game. Fastballs were coming back into the zone.”
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.
“This was a really good way to start out a series against a really good team, against a great pitcher, and have Gerrit throw the ball the way he did,” Boone said.
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. Cole also became the first pitcher to strike out at least 12 in three postseason games.