Posted on 10/11/2017 9:29:28 PM PDT by TBP
Didi Gregorius homered twice, CC Sabathia rolled back the clock with nine strikeouts before turning it over to the bullpen in the fifth inning and the Yankees completed their historic comeback from a daunting deficit, advancing past the Indians with a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night in Game 5 of the American League Division Series presented by Doosan.
New York will now face the Houston Astros in the AL Championship Series presented by Camping World. Game 1 is scheduled for Friday at Minute Maid Park.
Participating in their fourth elimination game in the past eight days, the Yankees never trailed in the final three ALDS games. They jumped in front early again on Wednesday thanks to Gregorius, who launched a solo home run in the first inning and a two-run shot in the third as Cleveland ace Corey Kluber was dispatched to his second early exit of the series.
Winning pitcher David Robertson hurled 2 2/3 scoreless innings, Brett Gardner delivered two insurance runs in the ninth with a single to end an epic 12-pitch at-bat against Cody Allen and Aroldis Chapman converted a six-out save, knocking off the defending AL champions as the Yankees became the 10th team to advance after trailing 0-2 in a best-of-five postseason series.
The Indians are the first team since the 2003 Athletics to win the first two games of a Division Series at home before being eliminated by dropping three straight. Dating back to last year's World Series, the Indians have also lost six straight close-out games, and they are 2-8 in close-out games under manager Terry Francona.
Kluber lasted just 3 2/3 innings before Francona turned the game over to the bullpen. The AL Cy Young Award front-runner, who gave up homers to Gary Sanchez and Aaron Hicks in Game 2 on Friday, had never allowed multiple home runs in consecutive starts before this series. Kluber had also never gone fewer than four innings in back-to-back starts.
The all-time leader in starts and innings pitched at Progressive Field, Sabathia seemed to thoroughly enjoy the early stages of his trip down memory lane. The former Tribe ace grinned widely after he pounced off the mound to snare Roberto Perez's popped-up bunt in the third inning, leaving a divot in the infield turf, part of a string in which he retired the first nine Indians and 13 of the first 14.
Cleveland did not manage an extra-base hit in Game 5, something it was unable to do only three times this season.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Yes Sir: Gregorius had been just 1-for-13 in the ALDS entering Game 5, but he produced his biggest swings when it counted the most. Gregorius gave the Yankees a quick lead when he pounced on a 94.1 mph 1-2 Kluber heater for a first-inning solo shot, then put New York up, 3-0, in the third when he cracked Kluber's 86.4 mph 0-1 curveball into the right-field seats. It was the third multihomer game by a Yankees player in a winner-take-all postseason contest, joining Yogi Berra (Game 7 of the 1956 World Series) and Jason Giambi (Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS).
Wouldn’t that be great if the Astros win their first World Series Championship by plowing through the Red Sox, the Yankees and the Dodgers?
Now the games drag on to a ridiculous four hours or more. All the commercial breaks for TV, the pitching changes, the conferences on the mound, the batters continuously moving in and out of the batter's box to scratch their balls in order to throw the pitcher's timing off, etc.
Then watching home on TV, you get all that mindless chitter-chatter between pitches by the announcers and the distracting whiz-bang graphics.
Wasn't always that way. When I went as a boy, I used to actually score the games with a pencil and the game program. That forced you to pay attention to every pitch. Nobody does that anymore.
I miss summer nights with a ballgame on the radio, static and all .. sigh
I actually enjoy going to an occasional baseball game. A beautiful day, brats and beer, and good conversation with friends. An occasional bit of excitement. Marginally better than beer, brats and friends on a back porch.
He’ll almost certainly be the Cy Young Award winner, but he certainly didn’t look like “The Klubot” in his two outings against the Yankees.
BTW, Luis Severino ought to get more attention in the Cy Young race than he will get. Severino may well have been the best pitcher in the league this year.
Watching them in this series, one could easily wonder how the heck tehy won 102 games.
I think I choose B in honor of all the Texas freepers. I think it would be cool for them to have the happiness of seeing their team take an ass whoopin' by the boys in blue. :)
Yes!
YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Gregloious!
Interesting, two Astros regulars were Yankees as recently as July of last year: McCann and Beltran.
Now six straight potential series-winning games that CLE has lost going back to last year.
Astros 2 games
Yankees 0 games
Go stros.
Cubbies 0 games
Go Dodgers!
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