No debate: Judge, Yankees pound Bieber, Indians in opener

CLEVELAND (AP) — 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 in his New York playoff debut and the Yankees opened their AL wild-card series 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 teed off against Bieber, who was baseball’s best pitcher during the condensed regular season but ineffective 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-yearold 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.

“The first inning didn’t go as planned,”Bieber said. “I wish I would have been with my off-speed stuff in the zone, and challenged those guys a little more. I forced myself into some bad situations and some bad counts on top of not having my best stuff and making mistakes.

“No excuses. It was not good.” The best-of-three series continues Wednesday night 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.

“We scored quite a few runs,” said Brett Gardner, who hit a two-run homer in the seventh and drove in three. “I don’t think you ever expect that against a pitcher the caliber of Shane Bieber. Hopefully that’s a sign of more good things to come.”

After giving up Torres’ homer, Bieber 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.