While the effort wasn’t pretty, the New York Yankees now find themselves two wins away from reaching the World Series for the first time since 2009.
On Tuesday, New York earned a sloppy 6-3 home win over the Cleveland Guardians to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series. The best-of-seven series heads to Cleveland, where the Guardians aim to stave off elimination, with Game 3 scheduled for Thursday at 5:08 p.m. ET.
Here are three takeaways from New York’s victory:
The lights might be too bright for the Guardians
On a night when Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole was disappointing, allowing two runs on six hits with four walks, the Guardians couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities to even up the series.
The pressure seemed to get to Cleveland for the second consecutive game. In the first inning, the typically sure-handed shortstop Brayan Rocchio dropped a pop-up hit by Aaron Judge, which allowed the first run of the game. The miscue was the first of two errors for a Guardians team that averaged just 0.54 errors per game during the regular season and gave the Yankees plenty of momentum.
Starting pitching was another issue for Cleveland yet again, as ace Tanner Bibee was pulled after 1.1 innings. Bibee allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits with one walk and two strikeouts. The Guardians still haven’t had a starting pitcher go longer than 4.2 innings this postseason.
Meanwhile, the Guardians bats remained silent in crucial moments. Despite the Yankees giving Cleveland a number of chances to score in bunches, it couldn’t take advantage. The Guardians went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.
The ALCS has gotten off to as disastrous a start as Cleveland could’ve imagined. Even so, perhaps returning to Progressive Field, where the Guardians are 2-1 this postseason, can give them the spark they need.
Aaron Judge makes progress throughout the night before hitting his first postseason homer
New York has been waiting for Judge to finally break through this postseason, and he may have taken the first step toward doing so in Game 2.
Judge stepped up to the plate in several key spots on Tuesday but failed to bust the game wide-open. As mentioned, a run scored on the soon-to-be two-time AL MVP’s first-inning at-bat where Rocchio dropped the pop-up, though he had another opportunity to deal more damage in the second.
After Bibee ran into trouble with one out in the second inning, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt made the surprising decision to intentionally walk outfielder Juan Soto to bring up Judge with the bases loaded. Judge, facing Guardians reliever Cade Smith, made Vogt pay for his actions, hitting a sacrifice fly to center field to extend New York’s lead to 3-0.
Judge flew out to center field during his next at-bat, though he finally came through in the seventh inning, delivering his first memorable moment of the postseason. The six-time All-Star sent the third pitch he saw from right-hander Hunter Gaddis 414 feet into Monument Park for a two-run home run, his first homer this October and ultimately the dagger in the game.
Welcome to October, Aaron Judge. pic.twitter.com/goSP8nzBjp
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 16, 2024
Gaddis’ pitch, which MLB.com’s Sarah Langs points out, was 3.96 feet above the ground, the second-highest pitch Judge has hit for a home run in his career.
If Judge has one last hot streak in him, it’ll be difficult for any team to knock off the Yankees.
Yankees need to move catcher Austin Wells down in the batting order
Wells, who slashed .229/.322/.395 with 13 home runs and 55 RBI during an impressive rookie season, isn’t the only Yankees hitter struggling this postseason. However, he is hurting the team the most, and it’s clear manager Aaron Boone must shake up the Yankees lineup by moving Wells out of the cleanup spot.
The 25-year-old went 0-for-4 at the plate on Tuesday, striking out twice while a runner was in scoring position. So far this postseason, Wells has posted a dismal .083 batting average with two hits, two RBI and 10 strikeouts in six games, though his slump began long before October.
Wells faded down the stretch of the regular season, hitting .111 (8-for-72) with just one homer, 13 RBI, eight walks and 20 strikeouts across his final 21 games. Overall, the potential AL Rookie of the Year finalist has struck out 30 times over his last 96 at-bats.
It’s hard to pinpoint whether Wells’ troubles at the plate are the result of him simply slumping or if his workload has caught up to him. Whatever the case may be, he can’t be trusted to bat behind Soto and Judge, the top two hitters in terms of on-base percentage during the regular season.
Boone has no shortage of options as to how he could tweak his lineup. The Yankees could let DH Giancarlo Stanton assume the cleanup duties, considering he’s batting .304 with two homers this postseason. But if Boone prefers to swap Wells out for another left-handed hitter, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who collected two hits on Tuesday, should be his choice.
