MLB playoffs: Guardians top Yankees to tie ALDS 1-1; Phillies roll for 2-1 NLDS lead
Oscar Gonzalez singled in the go-ahead run with Cleveland’s second consecutive bloop hit in the 10th inning, and the Guardians overcame a two-run deficit to beat the host New York Yankees 4-2 on Friday and even their best-of-five American League Division Series at one game apiece.
Jose Ramirez led off the 10th against Jameson Taillon with an opposite-field popup that dropped 200 feet from home plate, just in front of left fielder Oswaldo Cabrera for a double. Ramirez hustled all the way and slid into third headfirst when third baseman Josh Donaldson threw the ball past second for an error.
Gonzalez, whose 15th-inning homer Saturday completed a first-round sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays in the wild-card round, followed with a 59-mph, 164-foot opposite-field flare into short right off Taillon, who made his first big league relief appearance after 143 starts. Josh Naylor added an RBI double that bounced on a hop off the wall in right-center.
“We just try to find a way on base,” Naylor said. “If it’s a bloop hit, it’s a bloop hit. If it’s a hard-hit single, double, whatever the case is, we just try to hustle, try to make things happen on the field, try to put pressure on the defense.”
Winner Emmanuel Clase pitched 2 1/3 innings, his most in the major leagues, and combined with Trevor Stephan and James Karinchak for 4 1/3 innings of one-hit relief as Cleveland ended a six-game postseason losing streak to the Yankees.
You wanted a rivalry San Diego, here you go. Make sure Petco Park is filled with Padres fans during the NLDS this weekend, not Dodgers fans.
Clase retired Kyle Higashioka on a lineout to third baseman Ramirez for the final out of the eighth after Karinchak walked the bases loaded. Clase threw 33 pitches, 10 more than his season high.
“It was preparing mentally and remembering when I was a starter in the minor leagues and try to do the same thing,” Clase said through a translator.
Guardians relievers have thrown 17 2/3 scoreless innings this postseason.
The series shifts to Cleveland for Game 3 on Saturday night. There is no travel day because a rainout Thursday pushed Game 2 to Friday.
Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer in the first inning, and Cleveland tied the score against All-Star Nestor Cortes when Andres Gimenez had an RBI single in the fourth and Amed Rosario homered in the fifth.
Aaron Judge went 0 for 5 with four strikeouts and dropped to 0 for 8 with seven strikeouts and a walk in the series. Fresh off setting the AL home run record with 62, he was booed by some fans in the sellout crowd of 47,355 after whiffing against Stephan in the seventh.
Judge is two for 37 with 27 strikeouts against Cleveland in three playoff series, including all four of his four-strikeout postseason games.
“It’s the Bronx, man,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Great hitters go 0-for on a given day.”
Cortes saved two runs in the fourth with an acrobatic leap and throw to first from a sitting position on Myles Straw’s two-out, bases-loaded comebacker.
After rain caused a postponement Thursday night, the game was rescheduled for 1:07 p.m., the first early afternoon postseason start in the Bronx since Game 2 of the 2006 Division Series against the Detroit Tigers. Shadows crept across the field from the first base side in the middle innings on a cloudless afternoon, reminiscent of so many World Series games at old Yankee Stadium in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Dodgers once again struggle at the plate, losing 2-1 to the San Diego Padres in Game 3 of the NLDS on Friday night. San Diego leads the best-of-five series 2-1.
Cleveland starter Shane Bieber gave up two runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings, while Cortes yielded two runs, six hits and three walks in five innings.
New York’s Matt Carpenter returned from a broken left foot that had sidelined him since Aug. 8. He pinch-hit against Stephan with two on and two outs in the sixth, and he struck out.
In Game 3, right-hander Luis Severino (7-3, 3.18) will make his first postseason start for the Yankees since 2019 and right-hander Triston McKenzie (11-11, 2.96) will be on the mound for the Guardians after he pitched six scoreless innings in Game 2 against Tampa Bay. Severino pitched seven no-hit innings at Texas in his last regular-season start.
Philadelphia Phillies 9, Atlanta Braves 1
Rhys Hoskins burst out of his postseason malaise with a three-run homer and spiked his bat in triumph, and Bryce Harper hit a two-run shot that sent Phillies fever soaring and helped carry the team to a home win over the Braves in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.
Harper added an RBI double as Philadelphia took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five matchup against the reigning World Series champions. The Phillies can advance to the NL Championship Series with a Game 4 win at home Saturday.
The Phillies and a sellout crowd of 45,538 waited 11 mostly miserable years — 4,025 days, to be exact — to host a playoff game again at Citizens Bank Park.
Phillies fans should save the rally towels — the Phillies played like a team that wants to keep Red October alive.
The bats erupted in a six-run third inning that will forever be stamped on a Philly sports highlight reel. Bryson Stott got the rally going with an RBI double off Braves rookie Spencer Strider. Kyle Schwarber was intentionally walked to set the stage for Hoskins.
Hoskins, mired in a one-for-19 postseason slump, crushed a 94-mph fastball into the left-field seats for a 4-0 lead. Hoskins raised his arms in celebration, slammed his bat into the grass and skipped his way to first base.
“It’s just the moment, man,” he said. “I didn’t know what I did until a couple innings later, really.”
The exit velocity? It took about two seconds for Harper to bounce out of the dugout and toss his helmet in the air. Hoskins leapt into a violent elbow forearm exchange — think, Bash Brothers — with Stott as he crossed the plate.
“I don’t know if my feet touched the ground,” Hoskins said.
Strider, who pitched the first time in almost a month because of a strained left oblique, gave up one more single before he was lifted for Dylan Lee.
Playing his first playoff home game with the Phillies, Harper hammered the ball into the twilight for his second postseason homer and a 6-0 lead. Phillies fans who held hand-cut letters that spelled out “Harper” bounced in delight in stands that absolutely rocked. Harper, who embraced Philly and the Phanatic and the fans from the moment he signed a 13-year, $330-million deal in 2019, pointed to a fan who held a “Hit That Jawn” sign behind the dugout.
Jawn is a Philly noun used to describe anything. Harper’s shot made Philly feel everything.
“I was just fired up, ready to go,” the two-time NL most valuable player said.
Aaron Nola, pitching the best baseball of his career, was an October ace again in shutting down a Braves team that won 101 games and the NL East. He gave up five hits, walked two and struck out six in six-plus innings.
The Phillies played their first postseason home game since a 1-0 loss in the 2011 NLDS to Chris Carpenter and the eventual champion St. Louis Cardinals. They waited 11 years — and a whopping 14 straight road games since September — to get back. The Phillies ended the season on a 10-game trip and then played their first four playoff games on the road.
The Braves will send right-hander Charlie Morton (9-6, 4.34 ERA) to the mound for Game 4. The Phillies had yet to name a starter.
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