Yankees capture ALCS Game 1 over Guardians behind Carlos Rodon's strong start and homers by Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton

Carlos Rodon kept his emotions — which have gotten the better of him at times during the heat of competition, as he would be the first to admit — in check.

Probably not coincidentally, he ended up keeping the Guardians in check, too.

Rodon struck out nine in six innings and Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton homered to lead the Yankees to a 5-2 victory over Cleveland in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night in front of a sellout crowd of 47,264 at the Stadium.

The Yankees can put an early stranglehold on the series Tuesday night when ace Gerrit Cole, who has dominated Cleveland throughout his career, faces righthander Tanner Bibee.

Rodon, who came unglued in his ALDS start against the Royals after Salvador Perez led off the fourth inning with a homer, had no issues of any kind Monday. The lefthander, featuring a mid-90s fastball and darting slider, allowed one run, three hits and zero walks in his 93-pitch outing. He continually pounded the strike zone (63 of those pitches were strikes).

The same could not be said of the Guardians. The Yankees benefited from four wild pitches by reliever Joey Cantillo, two of which allowed a pair of two-out runs to score, and drew six walks in the third and fourth innings while taking a 4-0 lead.  They have drawn 34 walks in five postseason games.

Rodon had retired 11 straight entering the sixth inning, but that streak was snapped when Brayan Rocchio led off with a home run to bring the Guardians within 4-1.

Deposed closer Clay Holmes, coming off an ALDS in which he appeared in all four games and did not allow a run, struck out one in a perfect seventh inning.

After  Stanton blasted a 439-foot home run to left-center off the back of the Guardians' bullpen in the seventh to make it 5-1, the Guardians got within three runs in the eighth against lefthander Tim Hill. Andres Gimenez singled with one out and Rocchio hit a ground smash to first that deflected off Anthony Rizzo. As Rizzo gave chase up the rightfield line for the ball, Hill covered first and  Gimenez made contact with him as he made a move toward second. Hill was called for obstruction and suddenly the Guardians had runners at second and third with one out.

An RBI single to left by Steven Kwan made it 5-2, and Aaron Boone brought on Luke Weaver for a five-out save. He struck out pinch hitter Will Brennan swinging at a changeup and got the dangerous Jose Ramirez to ground to second.

Weaver walked Lane Thomas to start the ninth but struck out the next three to end it.

The Yankees, who finished with six hits, picked up two of them in each of the first two innings. 

Facing righthander Alex Cobb, Gleyber Torres and Soto each singled to center to begin the first.  Aaron Judge struck out looking at a 1-and-2 sinker, and after Austin Wells’ groundout to second put two runners in scoring position, Stanton, flied to left.

The Yankees stranded two more in the second. Rizzo and Alex Verdugo had two-out singles  to put runners at the corners, but Torres bounced to third to end the threat.

Soto’s ownership of Cobb continued, loudly, in the third as he launched a 387-foot homer to right-center into the Yankees' bullpen  to make it 1-0. The hit improved Soto to 9-for-13 with three homers against Cobb.

Cobb, injured much of the year and coming off a three-inning start vs. Detroit in the ALDS, walked Judge,  struck out Wells and walked Stanton. Jazz Chisholm Jr. flied to left but Cobb walked Anthony Volpe to load the bases and Cantillo replaced him. The overwhelmed lefthander spiked his third pitch in the dirt for a wild pitch that made 2-0. Rizzo walked on four pitches to re-load the bases, and with the count 1-and-2 on Verdugo, Cantillo threw another wild pitch to make it 3-0. 

Torres led off the fourth with a walk and Cantillo threw two more wild pitches to put him on third. After walking Soto, he was replaced by Pedro Avila, and Judge hit a sacrifice fly to center for a 4-0 lead.