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).
The Yankees have won 4 games so far this postseason, all of them elimination games. That's pretty amazing.
The ALCS should be a good, exciting series.
Baseball. A little more exciting than watching paint dry.
There’s always football....watch while you paint.
Well, there goes my brackets. I figured the ALCS would be Cleveland taking Boston in 6. As for my Rays, it’s wait’ll next year, as always.
The Indians had 3 more errors tonight...WOW
If baseball is too boring for you, you can always get pumped to watch the USA in the World Cup next year. Oh, wait.
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Kluber, while terrific pitcher, is not capable of total power domination in the big deciding games, as a Clemens, Randy Johnson, Salzburg, Hendricks, etc., Indians need a power starter to complement Kluber.
Go Dodgers!!!
Go Yankees!
They used to have Sabathia, who looked pretty good in that role tonoght. Orlando Hernandez was probably the Yankees best pure playoff pitcher. And don’t forget to put Schilling on your list. His bloody sock won a Massachusetts Senate seat.
Last time a team won 20 games in a row during a season, they also lost to tge Yankees.
They should go all in and sell naming rights for the players as well.
Let’s hope the Astros don’t end up like Cleveland—red hot in the regular season and ice cold in the playoffs when it matters. 9 strikeouts in 4.1 innings, 15 in the game. What a disaster.
October is always the best baseball month!
Bears repeating:
I am with you. I hope the WS ends up Houston and LA.
I have been an Astros fan since the mid 70’s and I have an uncle who has been a Dodgers fan for about that long.
We are already planning our bets.
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