Yanks fall to Indians ahead of All-Star break
CLEVELAND » With a flight to catch, Michael Brantley quickly dressed and stuffed some batting gloves, cleats and other gear into a redwhite-and-blue duffel bag.
Brantley’s headed to the All-Star Game. Before leaving, he again showed why he’s going.
Brantley homered leading off the eighth inning, and the Cleveland Indians headed into the break with a 5-2 win over the Yankees on Sunday to split the fourgame series between teams that could see each other in October.
One of six Indians selected to play Tuesday in Washington, Brantley broke a 2-2 tie by belting a pitch from Chad Green (52) into the seats in right for his 12th homer — and 17th game-tying or go-ahead RBI this season.
“I got a pitch out over the plate, put a good swing on it and was lucky to give us the lead,” Brantley said. “At the same time, the guys behind me did a great job putting quality at-bats together and scoring an extra couple of runs. It was nice.”
Following Brantley’s shot, the Indians added two insurance runs in the inning when Jose Ramirez dashed home on a sacrifice fly by Yan Gomes and Green uncorked a wild pitch.
Neil Walker homered for the Yankees, who are 29 games over .500 but trail the scorching Boston Red Sox by 4½ games in the AL East.
“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve got the Mets. That’s our next up. Hopefully we get some cooperation standings-wise, but you’ll drive yourself crazy in July trying to keep track of that.”
Carlos Carrasco (11-5) earned his first win in relief since July 19, 2014. The right-hander was available after pitching only five innings in Wednesday night’s 19-4 blowout of Cincinnati.
Cody Allen struck out two in the ninth and earned his 20th save in 21 opportunities, but Cleveland’s win ended with the Indians holding their breath after Edwin Encarnacion was hit in the eighth.
Cleveland’s cleanup hitter homered in the fourth, but had to leave after being hit by a pitch on the right hand. Though it initially appeared Encarnacion might be badly hurt, Terry Francona said the slugger is OK.
“He got the meat of the hand fortunately, and he checked out fine,” he said. “That was a big sigh of relief. That looked like it whacked him pretty good.”
Aaron Judge struck out three times against AllStar Trevor Bauer, and Giancarlo Stanton fanned twice for New York.
Battling the heat early on, Bauer held the powerpacked Bronx Bombers in check for seven innings, limiting them to two runs and seven hits. The righthander will not pitch on Tuesday at Nationals Park unless the game goes to extra innings and Houston manager A.J. Hinch runs out of arms.
“Yeah, I’d love to be on the mound Tuesday,” Bauer said “Who knows? It’s not my decision where I pitch or not. I’m probably the only person in baseball rooting for extra innings in the AllStar Game.”
New York’s Masahiro Tanaka was just as good, allowing two runs and six hits in his second start since coming off the disabled list. He’s unbeaten in his last 11 starts stretching back to April 17.
Tanaka coasted through three innings before Encarnacion tied it 2-2 in the fourth with home run No. 22.
“Edwin’s hit was huge,” Francona said. “To beat Tanaka, to be competitive against him, you got to be so disciplined and that split is such a good pitch and we were kind of having a hard time. And then when Edwin tied it with one swing, you’re like, ‘OK, at least we’re not losing.’ That was a huge hit for us.”