Carlos Rodon had the best postseason start of his career – so far, anyway – Juan Soto hit his first playoff home run in pinstripes and Giancarlo Stanton homered again Monday night as the Yankees beat the Guardians, 5-2, in Game 1 of the AL Championship Series.
Rodon, riding a sharp slider, allowed just one run and three hits over six innings. He kept his emotions in check, unlike his start in the Division Series against the Royals and a lower-key approach worked.
The Yankees lead the best-of-seven series, 1–0, leading into Game 2 Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
Here are the takeaways…
-The one blemish on Rodon’s big night came leading off the sixth – he gave up a solo home run to No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio. He got the next three outs, including the final one on a fine running catch in center by Aaron Judge on a long drive by Cleveland star José Ramírez. That got Clay Holmes up in the bullpen and it was clear Rodon would not go much more. Rodon finished throwing 93 pitches, 63 for strikes.
-The strong start was quite a turnaround from the first three postseason outings of Rodon’s career. He entered the night with a career ERA of 11.37 in October, but had trimmed it to 6.57 by the time he was done. Rodon also continued his strong work at Yankee Stadium this year, improving to 10-3 at home with a 3.28 ERA, including the postseason.
-Stanton, the offensive star of the Yankees’ victory over Kansas City in the ALDS, hit a rocket homer over the wall in left-center, 439 feet from home plate, in the seventh inning. The ball was clocked at 114.3 miles per hour. It was his second home run of this postseason and the 13th of his postseason career. Stanton and Judge are tied for fifth among Yankees in postseason home runs. The only folks ahead of them are Bernie Williams (22 homers), Derek Jeter (20), Mickey Mantle (18) and Babe Ruth (15). Pleasant company. And, yes, we know that all of Mantle’s and all of Ruth’s came in the World Series. That’s all there was back then.
-The Yankee bullpen allowed only an unearned run in 15.2 innings in the ALDS and started out with success Monday when Holmes threw a 1-2-3 seventh. Aaron Boone brought in lefty Tim Hill to start the eighth and that didn’t go quite as well, in part because Hill was called for obstruction at first base on Rocchio’s soft single with one out and one on. That put runners on second and third and Steven Kwan hit an RBI single to cut the Yankee lead to 5-2. Luke Weaver came in and struck out pinch-hitter Will Brennan and then got the dangerous Ramírez on a routine grounder to end the eighth.
-Weaver walked the leadoff hitter in the ninth and then struck out the next three to clamp down his fourth save of the playoffs. Holmes, by the way, has not allowed a run in six innings this postseason and none in 14 innings to start his postseason career. That’s the second-longest such streak in Yankee history behind Mariano Rivera’s streak of 16.
-The Yankees scored three times in the third inning and knocked out Cleveland starter Alex Cobb. Soto led off the inning with a 401-foot homer to right-center, a ball that was measured at 109.7 miles per hour off the bat by Statcast. Soto basically owns Cobb – the homer was the third of his career off the righty and it made him 9-for-13 lifetime (.692) against him. Then things got, well, odd. Cobb walked the bases loaded, sandwiched around two outs and was removed in favor of lefty Joey Cantillo. Cantillo threw two wild pitches – Judge scampered home on one, Stanton on the other – and walked Anthony Rizzo before getting the final out of the inning.
-The Yankees put the first two runners on in the first inning with two hard-hit balls but failed to score. Gleyber Torres hit Cobb’s first pitch to center and then Soto continued his mastery of Cobb with a 110-mile-per-hour single to center. But Cobb struck out Judge, got Austin Wells on a grounder and retired Stanton on a fly to left. In the second inning, they got consecutive two-out singles from Rizzo and Alex Verdugo, but also failed to score. Good sign that Rizzo singled, though – he was playing for the first time since suffering two fractured fingers on Sept. 28. Rizzo was not on the ALDS roster, but he was added to the ALCS roster when he and the Yanks determined he could play as long as he could cope with some pain. Rizzo was replaced at first in the ninth inning by Oswaldo Cabrera, but was visible in the Yankee dugout.
-In the fourth, the Yanks added another run for a 4-0 lead. Cantillo, still in the game and still remarkably wild, walked the first two batters and also threw two wild pitches, which meant Judge was up with runners on first and third. He swung at a 3-0 pitch and flew out to center, but Torres scored and the sac fly gave Judge, who was 0-for-2 with a walk and a run scored otherwise, his first RBI of the postseason. Judge is now 2-for-15 this postseason with six walks.
-Speaking of walks, the Yankees are drawing them like crazy. Royals pitchers walked them 27 times in four ALDS games and Guardians pitchers issued seven walks Monday night, giving the Yankees 34 in five games.
Game MVP: Carlos Rodon
He struck out nine and did not walk a batter. Leaning mostly on his fastball and slider, Rodon got 25 swings and misses from Cleveland hitters, according to MLB’s Statcast. There were 13 swings at his slider and Guardians batters missed the pitch on nine of them. It was the finishing pitch on seven of his nine strikeouts.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees and Guardians meet again for Game 2 on Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:38 p.m.
Gerrit Cole will hope to give the Yanks a 2-0 series lead. Guardians will have Tanner Bibee on the mound.
