NEW YORK — Carlos Rodon pitched six solid innings for his first career postseason win as the New York Yankees opened the American League Championship Series with a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Monday night.
Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton homered for the New York Yankees, who capitalized on four wild pitches by Guardians rookie Joey Cantillo, two of them scoring runs.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is set for Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
A week after being unable to get through the fourth inning and absorbing the loss in Game 2 of the AL Division Series against Kansas City, Rodon took a shutout into the sixth and allowed one run on three hits on Monday.
The left-hander struck out nine, walked none and threw 63 of 93 pitches for strikes while constantly getting ahead of hitters.
Soto reached base three times and opened the scoring by driving a 2-1 sinker from Cleveland starter Alex Cobb (0-1) into the New York bullpen beyond the center field fence to start a three-run third. It was Soto’s eighth career postseason homer and third in LCS play.
After Soto’s blast, the Yankees loaded the bases with two outs before Cantillo replaced Cobb.
On the third pitch to Anthony Rizzo, Cantillo threw a wild pitch that bounced in the air and Judge scored New York’s second run when the left-hander was slow to cover the plate. After Rizzo walked, Giancarlo Stanton scored standing up to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead when Cantillo threw a wild pitch that bounced to the backstop during Alex Verdugo’s at-bat.
The Yankees made it 4-0 in the fourth when Gleyber Torres scored on a sacrifice fly by Judge after drawing a walk and advancing to second and third on wild pitches by Cantillo.
Cleveland’s Brayan Rocchio opened the sixth by homering into the left field seats off a 2-2 Rodon fastball.
Stanton increased New York’s lead to 5-1 with a homer off Erik Sabrowski that bounced off an advertisement in the Cleveland bullpen beyond the left field fence in the seventh. It was Stanton’s 13th career postseason homer.
Cobb was charged with three runs on five hits in 2 2/3 innings. He struck out three, walked three and exited after issuing a free pass to Anthony Volpe to load the bases.
Cantillo joined Rick Ankiel as the second pitcher with at least four wild pitches in a postseason game. Ankiel had five for the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of the 2000 NLDS against the Atlanta Braves.
New York’s Clay Holmes pitched a 1-2-3 seventh but Tim Hill allowed an RBI single to Steven Kwan in the eighth after Hill was charged with interference on Rocchio’s base hit.
Luke Weaver got the final five outs — striking out four — for his fourth save of the postseason.
–Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media
