Gerrit Cole's excellent start, Harrison Bader's homer help Yankees force ALDS Game 5
CLEVELAND — It wasn’t torn straight from the Mark Messier or Joe Namath playbook, but Aaron Judge spoke confidently late Saturday night as the Yankees found themselves on the brink of elimination after taking as brutal a postseason loss as a team can.
“We can’t sit here and sulk on it,” Judge said after watching Cleveland score three runs in the ninth inning to erase a two-run deficit in ALDS Game 3. “We’ve got a big game [Sunday] and couldn’t get it done today. But we’ll go and do it [Sunday].”
Helped by Gerrit Cole’s solid seven innings, Harrison Bader’s third homer in four games and a fourth outing in four games for Wandy Peralta, the Yankees forced a deciding Game 5 with a 4-2 win over the Guardians in front of a sellout crowd of 36,738 at Progressive Field.
Jameson Taillon, who began the series in the bullpen, will start Monday night at the Stadium against Aaron Civale.
“We’re ready for it,’’ Taillon said. “It is a big opportunity. Props to Gerrit for just pushing the ball forward, getting us back home. You know, we go back with a rested bullpen and I’m ready to go for Game 5.”
Said Bader: “With the [pitching] staff, defensively, offensively, you know, if there is a game being played, we feel like we’re in the driver’s seat. That’s how we remain dangerous. I don’t think we want it any other way than to return back to the Bronx. So we’re just excited about the energy we’ve got moving forward, and tomorrow is a new day. We’ll go out there and play our best baseball. That’s all there is to it.”
With their bullpen a complete mess, the Yankees needed length out of Cole and got it. He allowed two runs and six hits, striking out eight and walking one.
Cole improved to 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA in four career postseason starts against Cleveland and is 2-0 with a 2.03 ERA in this series.
“Overall, just [the] stuff was pretty good,’’ he said. “But we just executed a lot of good pitches and mixed well, well enough to get away with a couple of mistakes. And, I mean, I had the lead and was just focused on executing pitches and not giving it up.”
Clay Holmes walked Steven Kwan with one out in the eighth but struck out Amed Rosario and Jose Ramirez to end the inning. Peralta, who pitched 1 2⁄3 innings Saturday and also appeared in Friday’s loss at the Stadium, needed only seven pitches to record a 1-2-3 ninth, getting two groundouts and a strikeout.
The Yankees have scored 15 runs in the series, with 12 of them coming on their seven home runs — five two-run homers and two solo shots.
Gleyber Torres got the Yankees off to a good start in the first inning with a single to right. Judge struck out swinging at a 91-mph cutter, but Torres stole second on the pitch and scored on Anthony Rizzo’s single to center.
Josh Donaldson opened the second by punching a 1-and-2 cutter to right for a single. One out later, Bader attacked a first-pitch, belt-high 89-mph cutter and drove it 429 feet into the bleachers in left-center to make it 3-0.
Cleveland got a run back in the third, an inning that began with Cole walking No. 8 hitter Austin Hedges. After consecutive outs, Rosario singled and Ramirez flared an RBI single into short left.
Josh Naylor led off the fourth by ripping a 2-and-2, 98-mph fastball to right for a 405-foot homer that cut the Yankees’ lead to 3-2. Naylor screamed at Cole and acted as if he were cradling a baby as he circled the bases.
“Whatever,’’ Cole said. “It’s cute . . . I mean, I just was made aware of it. I didn’t see it in the moment, and it wouldn’t have bothered me in the moment, and it just is kind of funny.”
Eli Morgan replaced Cal Quantrill in the sixth and allowed a leadoff infield single by Judge. Rizzo followed with his second hit of the night, a looping double down the leftfield line. Kwan ran down Stanton’s laser to the track in left-center, but the sacrifice fly made it 4-2.
“Preparing for this game, when he [Aaron Boone] told me I was going Game 4, you know, there’s an opportunity to clinch or an opportunity to go home,’’ Cole said. “I didn’t approach the game any different. I just went out there and did my job.”
Said Boone: “Just kept making pitches all night long. And I thought was just really in command of the moment and it was obviously a huge start for us and for him. And to get us that deep in the game set us up real nice . . . Just a big-time performance in this environment and to get us back home.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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