Yankees starter, right-hander Sonny Gray, had issues with walks after being acquired by NY at the trading deadline, and he was shaky early.
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On the same field where their magical 2016 postseason ended on November 2 in a light rain and extra innings, the Indians will open the Division Series on Thursday night against Judge and the New York Yankees, who rallied to beat the Minnesota Twins in the AL wild-card game.
Coming off their win over Minnesota in the wild-card game Tuesday, when Judge homered in his playoff debut, the Yankees came in with momentum.
According to Sports Illustrated, as dominant as Sale has been this year, he enters Game 1 looking to rebound from what has not been a great ending to the regular season, especially by his standards. He’s 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA in two starts against the Yankees.
Indians over Nationals in seven: The Indians are loaded, as evidenced by their 22-game winning streak, and full of star power, with a future Hall of Fame manager at the helm in Terry Francona. That was still enough for Yankees skipper Joe Girardi to hold off on Severino’s second playoff outing until Monday. They play fundamentally sound, mistake-free baseball and are captained by AL MVP favorite Jose Altuve, who led the league in batting average and hits this year. No matter how he played his cards, Francona believed he had the better hand because he had an ace in the hole.
New York: Well, we know the Yanks can hit.
“I had good stuff”, Bauer said.
“To be honest with you, I haven’t thrown that much – well, hell, I haven’t done it ever”, Robertson, who has served as both a closer and set-up man for the Yankees and White Sox, said. In three starts vs. the Yankees this year, Bauer is 3-0 with a 0.92 ERA. But while he posted a 3.72 ERA in his 11 regular-season starts as a Yankee, he walked almost 10 percent of the batters he faced and went more than six innings just three times.
“Bauer really did a good job of commanding the strike zone today”, Brett Gardner said.
“I honestly don’t give myself a lot of time to reflect when I’m doing it”, Bruce said. They are really well balanced. Once you see the finish line, make sure you go across it.
Sabathia spent eight seasons with Cleveland and twice pitched in the postseason for the Indians. In his career, Bauer is 3-4 with a 4.28 ERA and 36 strikeouts against the Yankees. The Yankees got their revenge in 1923, beating the Giants four games to two to win their first World Series championship. Two hits allowed. Neither of them until the sixth.
Bauer’s shifting usage of his breaking ball prevented the Yankees from unloading on it, even when they expected the pitch. Last season, he guided the Indians to the seventh game of the Series before they fell in extra innings in a heartbreaking loss to the Cubs. “The playoffs are a different animal, and any team can beat you on any day”.
While Bruce struggled down the stretch, with a.222/.304/.432 September, his bat came alive tonight, with a second-inning double, a two-run homer in the fourth (providing all the runs Cleveland would need, as it turned out), and an RBI sac fly in the fifth.
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Trevor Bauer set the tone early and made the Yankees realize that he had his good stuff Thursday night.
