2024-10-15 07:55:03
NEW YORK – October has truly arrived in the Bronx.
It’s a cool, windy 50 degrees at Yankee Stadium for Game 1 of the AL Championship Series, and another playoff meeting – the fourth since 2017 – between the Yankees and Cleveland Guardians.
Tonight, Yankees’ lefty Carlos Rodon will face a Cleveland lineup featuring switch-hitting veteran Jose Ramirez, and “he’s the complete package,’’ according to Yanks manger Aaron Boone.
“If I hear another ‘How underappreciated, underrated he is’ from somebody on a network or something, I want to rip my arms off and throw it at the TV,’’ said Boone of a player on a “Hall of Fame” track.
CC Sabathia has thrown out the ceremonial first pitch, and here we go in this best-of-seven for the AL pennant…
The crowd here at Yankee Stadium roared as Luke Weaver entered the game, and he quickly quieted the trouble in the eighth.
Entering with runners at the corners, Weaver retired pinch-hitter Will Brennan and the dangerous Jose Ramirez, representing the tying run, preserving a 5-2 Yankees lead.
Yankees reliever Tim Hill obstructed with baserunner Brayan Rocchio, setting the Guardians up with runners at second and third, and Steven Kwan has come through with an RBI single in the eighth.
It’s 5-2 Yanks, runners at the corners, and here comes Luke Weaver for a five-out save.
Outside of first base, Hill stood in Rocchio’s way after he grounded a bit of a gift single under the glove of Anthony Rizzo, playing with sore fingers on his right hand (from fractures suffered Sept. 28).
Giancarlo Stanton has mashed a solo homer off the back of the Cleveland bullpen wall, just short of the way-out left field bleachers. It’s 5-1, Yanks in the seventh.
That’s Stanton’s second homer of these playoffs and his 13th career postseason home run. And this one, off lefty Erik Sabrowski, traveled an estimated 439 feet, measured at 114.3-mph off the bat.
Carlos Rodon has exited after six innings, with a 4-1 lead after a fine bounce back performance following his fourth-inning hook in ALDS Game 2 vs. the Royals.
We’ve reached the late-inning bullpen portion of the game, and Clay Holmes has pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to maintain a 4-1 lead. Rodon’s line: 6 IP, 3 hits, one run (HR), zero walks, 9 strikeouts.
That might be it for Carlos Rodon after he ended the Cleveland sixth by getting Jose Ramirez on a long fly to left-center, where Aaron Judge made a nice running catch near the wall.
It’s 4-1 Yankees, Rodon is at 93 pitches, and Clay Holmes is warmed up in the ‘pen.
There’s suddenly action in the Yankees’ bullpen as Carlos Rodon’s streak of retiring 11 straight Guardians ends with No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio’s leadoff homer in the sixth. Yanks ahead, 4-1.
That’s 11 in a row now retired by Rodon, and he’s ended each inning with a strikeout – this time getting Andres Gimenez chasing a slider to end the Cleveland fifth.
Rodon used just 11 pitches in the inning, and the Yanks’ 4-0 lead feels double that right now.
And it comes on a sacrifice fly to center off Pedro Avila, who entered for Joey Cantillo after the lefty began the fourth by yielding two more walks and two more wild pitches. It’s 4-0, Yanks.
Rodon is now through four scoreless innings, ending each one of them with a swinging strikeout – this time vs. Josh Naylor, still an October enemy here for his ‘rock-the-baby’ home run gesture vs. Gerrit Cole in the 2022 ALDS.
That’s seven strikeouts for Rodon, having faced just 14 batters. It’s 3-0, Yanks.
Lefty reliever Joey Castillo has allowed a second inherited runner to score on another two-out wild pitch, this time with Giancarlo Stanton crossing to make it 3-0 before Alex Verdugo struck out to end the third.
The Cleveland starter didn’t make it out of the third inning, exiting with the bases loaded and two out as lefty Joey Cantillo comes in to face Anthony Rizzo….
and Cantillo uncorks a wild pitch, scoring Aaron Judge from third for a 2-0 Yanks lead before re-loading the bases by walking Rizzo on four pitches.
The free agent payday for Juan Soto keeps increasing.
Soto opened the Yankees’ third inning with a home run to right-center, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead off Alex Cobb, who followed with a walk to Aaron Judge and received a visit from an athletic trainer.
Cobb was dealing with a cracked nail and a blister last month. Not clear what this visit was about, but Cleveland has Joey Cantillo warming up in the bullpen.
Showing no ill-effects from his two fractured fingers on Sept. 28, Anthony Rizzo’s first 2024 postseason at-bat produced a line drive single in the second inning, but the Yanks would strand runners at the corners with two out.
For the second time tonight, Gleyber Torres (1-for-2) went after the first pitch, this time tapping into a force play.
After Gleyber Torres and Juan Soto opened with singles off Alex Cobb, the Yanks failed to score.
It’s the fourth time in five playoff games this October that the Yanks have put the first two runners on base, and they’ve scored a grand total of one run – in Thursday’s ALDS clincher at KC.
In those spots, Aaron Judge is 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and a double play. Cobb struck him out looking and the Yankees’ bench was angered by Mike Estabrook’s low two-strike call against the Yankees captain.
Carlos Rodon said he’d try to follow Gerrit Cole’s lead from Thursday’s Division Series clincher at Kansas City by guarding his emotions, and so far, so good.
To end a scoreless top of the first, Rodon stranded a runner at second, striking out Lane Thomas and not showing any outward reactions – letting the crowd’s roar handle that.
But Rodon did have a discussion with plate ump Mike Estabrook after he walked off the mound.
A little more than two weeks after suffering fractured fingers, first baseman Anthony Rizzo is back in the Yankees’ lineup for the AL Championship Series.
According to Rizzo, it’s about managing pain tolerance, and that won’t be an issue for the lefty-hitting veteran in tonight’s Game 1 against the Cleveland Guardians.
“The 50,000 (fans) in the stands, the adrenaline and what’s at stake is going to outweigh anything,’’ said Rizzo, who’ll bat in the No. 8 spot against Cleveland right-hander Alex Cobb.
Rizzo suffered fractures to his fourth and fifth fingers on Sept. 28, the next-to-last game of the regular season, when he was hit by a pitch. He did not make the Division Series roster.
TV: TBS, truTV and Max
Watch Yankees vs. Guardians live on Sling
SP: Alex Cobb, RHP
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