Yankees power past Guardians in ALDS Game 5, set up ALCS vs. Astros

What seemed inevitable from the time spring training camps broke in early April is here at last.

Yankee-Astros in the American League Championship Series.

The Yankees, who have had postseason runs end at the hands of the Astros three different times since 2015, will be at Houston’s Minute Maid Park for Game 1 of the ALCS Wednesday night after knocking out the pesky Guardians, 5-1, Tuesday afternoon in Game 5 of the Division Series at sold-out Yankee Stadium.

Jameson Taillon, bumped from the Game 5 start in favor of Nestor Cortes after Monday’s rainout, will start Game 1 of the ALCS against longtime Yankees nemesis Justin Verlander.

It is a matchup of the AL’s top two teams, with the top-seeded Astros winning five of the seven games the clubs played against each other this season.

Many in the Yankees organization, including GM Brian Cashman, continue to believe the 2017 team was cheated out of a World Series appearance by an Astros club that was later penalized for an illegal sign-steal scheme that included the banging of trash cans. A forgotten sidenote, however, is that the Yankees lost that series because they didn’t hit at Minute Maid. The sign-stealing scheme was designed to help Houston hitters, not pitchers.  

Regardless, the Yankees got their chance at redemption in Houston primarily because of the work Tuesday of Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge and Cortes.

Stanton provided the day’s biggest hit, a tone-setting three-run homer in the first inning off overmatched Cleveland righthander Aaron Civale – who would last one-third of an inning – that marked the slugger’s 11th career playoff homer in 23 games.  Judge, mostly quiet the first four games of the series, homered in the second for a 4-0 lead.

It was all more than enough for Cortes, the Yankees starter in Game 2 of this series who was coming back on short rest. The lefthander, who allowed two runs and six hits in earning the no-decision in the Game 2 4-2 loss in 10 innings four days before, allowed one run and three hits over five innings.

Civale, beaten up during two regular-season starts against the Yankees, predictably struggled. The righthander, 1-3 with a 4.78 ERA in five career outings against the Bombers, including 0-2, 10.00 this season, retired only one of the five batters he faced. The three runs came on Stanton’s opposite-field homer to right, the DH/outfielder’s fourth homer in seven career playoff games against Cleveland.

Steven Kwan led off the 57-degree late afternoon by lining a 0-and-1 slider to right for a single, but Cortes then retired three straight. Amed Rosario fouled out to Jose Trevino on a poor bunt attempt and Jose Ramirez popped to short. Oscar Gonzalez, whose walk-off single won Game 3, lined softly to short to end the eight-pitch inning.

The Yankees more or less put it away in the bottom half.

Civale walked Gleyber Torres, hitting leadoff a third straight game, on four pitches to bring up Judge. Civale got ahead 1-and-2 before striking Judge out swinging at a full-count curveball, which dropped the outfielder to 2-for-17 with 10 strikeouts in the series.

Anthony Rizzo, however, was hit by pitch – Rizzo drew the fourth-most hit by pitches (23) in the Majors this season – to put two runners on for Stanton. The DH, 1-for-12 to that point the series, got ahead 2-and-0 before taking an 88-mph cutter the other way, well over the wall in right for his second homer of the series. Josh Donaldson followed by reaching on an infield single and that concluded the Civale portion of the afternoon’s activities as he was replaced by Sam Hentges. The lefthander struck out Oswaldo Cabrera, walked Harrison Bader and got Trevino to ground out.

Cortes, in the dugout for nearly a half-hour as the Yankees batted, provided a shutdown inning nonetheless, needing 10 pitches to retire the Guardians in order.

After Judge’s blast made it 4-0, the Guardians mounted their one threat in the third. Austin Hedges led off with a single and Straw fouled to first. Kwan then dumped a looper to short left – a trouble spot for the Yankees all series – where Cabrera, the shortstop, collided with leftfielder Aaron Hicks. Their feet appeared to get tangled and Hicks, after several minutes of evaluation, left the game with a left knee injury and was replaced by Marwin Gonzalez (Hicks later underwent an MRI).

Cortes walked Rosario on four pitches and fell behind Ramirez, Cleveland’s best hitter, 2-and-1. Ramirez’s sacrifice fly to center made it 4-1 and Cortes kept it there, with Gonzalez flying softly to left for the third out.

Torres walked against Trevor Stephan to start the fifth and, with Judge at the plate, stole second. Judge struck out and James Karinchak came in to face Rizzo, who laced an RBI single to right to make it 5-1.  

Jonathan Loaisiga put two on with one out in the sixth but induced a lineout from Naylor, then struck out Arias swinging at a 100-mph fastball. Clay Holmes struck out two in a perfect eighth and Wandy Peralta, though he allowed a pair of hits, closed it out with a scoreless ninth.