Yankees Defeat Guardians; Take Game One of ALCS
The American League Championship Series kicked off today at Yankee Stadium for Game One between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians. Both teams got here by taking advantage of their first-round byes in the Division Series. The Yankees took care of the Kansas City Royals in four games, and the Guardians survived in five games against the Detroit Tigers. With a trip to the World Series on the line, the Yankees prevailed in a crucial Game One at home by a final score of 5-2. Here is a recap of the action from Yankee Stadium.
The game started slow, as both starting pitchers, Alex Cobb for Cleveland and Carlos Rodón for New York, got through the first two innings with relative ease. Then, Juan Soto broke the scoreless tie with a lead-off home run in the bottom of the third inning to give the Yankees an early advantage, but the Yankees were far from done in that frame. Cobb went on to walk the bases loaded with walks to Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Anthony Volpe, which led to him being pulled for reliever Joey Cantillo. Cantillo threw a wild pitch to Anthony Rizzo, the first batter he faced in relief, scoring Aaron Judge. Then, he threw another wild pitch to Alex Verdugo, scoring Stanton to make the score 3-0 Yankees after three innings. New York tacked on another run in the fourth after a sacrifice fly by Judge scored Gleyber Torres. Cleveland finally showed a sign of life when the nine-spot hitter Brayan Rocchio homered to left field in the top of the sixth to cut the New York lead to 4-1. However, the Yankees would get that run back an inning later as Giancarlo Stanton continued his red-hot postseason with a missile over the left-field bullpen to extend the lead back to four runs.
However, the feisty Guardians were not going away without a fight. They got a rally going in the top of the eighth, getting runners on the corners with only one out. Then, leadoff hitter Steven Kwan singled to left field to cut the lead to 5-2 with only one out and two runners on base. This led to the Yankees bringing in their closer, Luke Weaver, for a potential five-out save. He went on to strike out Will Brennan and get slugger José Ramírez to ground out to escape the threat. Weaver threw a drama-free ninth inning as well to complete the five-out save and clinch the win for the Yankees. This is a crucial win for the Yankees as they get the critical 1-0 lead in the series. As for Cleveland, tomorrow becomes nearly a must-win game for them to avoid the dreaded 0-2 deficit. Tomorrow’s first pitch will be at 7:38 Eastern Time, with aces Tanner Bibee and Gerrit Cole taking the mound.
