2022 American League Division Series 2

2022 American League Division Series

New York Yankees 99 - 63 in the AL	3 - 2 Series Summary	Cleveland Guardians 92 - 70 in the AL

Overview[edit]

The Teams[edit]

Managers: Yankees: Aaron Boone | Guardians: Terry Francona

Yankees

Guardians

Umpires[edit]

Jordan Baker, Jeremie Rehak, Dan Iassogna, Will Little, Alan Porter, Mark Ripperger

Series results[edit]

Game	Score	Date	Starters	Time (ET)
1	Cleveland Guardians 1 New York Yankees 4	October 11	Cal Quantrill (0-1) Gerrit Cole (1-0)	7:37 pm
2	Cleveland Guardians 4 New York Yankees 2	October 14	Shane Bieber (0-0) Nestor Cortes (0-0)	1:07 pm
3	New York Yankees 5 Cleveland Guardians 6	October 15	Luis Severino (0-0) Triston McKenzie (0-0)	7:37 pm
4	New York Yankees 4 Cleveland Guardians 2	October 16	Gerrit Cole (2-0) Cal Quantrill (0-2)	7:07 pm
5	Cleveland Guardians 1 New York Yankees 5	October 18	Aaron Civale (0-1) Nestor Cortes (1-0)	4:07 pm

Results[edit]

Game 1 @ New Yankee Stadium[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Guardians	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	2
Yankees	0	0	1	0	1	2	0	0	x	4	5	1
WP: Gerrit Cole (1-0); LP: Cal Quantrill (0-1)
Home Runs: CLE - Steven Kwan (1); NY - Harrison Bader (1), Anthony Rizzo (1)

Attendance: 47,807

New York won Game 1 at home thanks to a couple of well-placed home run balls, and Cleveland's inability to convert an early bases loaded situation against Gerrit Cole. This made Yankees fans forget an egregious baserunning mistake by Josh Donaldson when the game was still tied, and brought a bit of redemption for Cole who had endured a lot of criticism for his performance in his only other postseason start in pinstripes until then, a definitely sub-par performance against the Boston Red Sox in the previous year's Wild Card Game. For Cleveland, Cal Quantrill got the ball and while he did not do badly, he was done in by one defensive lapse and a one gopher ball too many.

The first two innings went by quickly, with Cleveland stranding a couple of baserunners against Cole, while a double play grounder ended a budding threat by the Yankees in the bottom of the 2nd. Things really got going in the 3rd when Steven Kwan hit a one-out homer courtesy of the short right-field fence at New Yankee Stadium. Cole then hit the next batter, Amed Rosario, with a pitch and allowed a double to José Ramírez. Josh Naylor then hit a weak grounder to first base, and Rosario deked 1B Anthony Rizzo, making as if he was breaking for home, getting him to throw to C Jose Trevino who then realized the runner had turned around. By the time, the catcher had relayed the ball to 3B Donaldson, Rosario had made it back quickly, and the bases were now loaded with just one out. However, with Cole in the ropes, the Guardians were unable to land the knockout blow: Oscar Gonzalez hit the next pitch directly at Donaldson, and with a force play now on at the plate, he had no trouble throwing out Rosario for the second out, even if the Yankees could not turn a double play. Cole then struck out Andres Gimenez to end the inning and Cleveland had wasted a huge opportunity, even if they were up, 1-0. And indeed, the lead did not last, as the second batter in the bottom of the inning, Harrison Bader, hit his first home run in a Yankee uniform to tie the score.

Things picked up again in the 5th, after two quick turns at bat by Cleveland and one by New York. Donaldson led off the bottom of that inning with a long drive to right. He was convinced it was a home run, and started trotting around the bases, giving a high five to first base coach Travis Chapman along the way, only to see RF Gonzalez throw to second base. He was unable to retreat quickly enough to make it back to first, and was out on a long single, as the ball had bounced on the top of the fence in right, untouched by any fans, and back into Gonzalez's glove, who made a perfect throw to second to stun Donaldson. The umpires asked for a video review, but it quickly confirmed that, indeed, the ball had never left the ballpark and Donaldson was out. This could have been a major embarrassment, but the game also showed how quickly one can go from hero to goat: Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a ball down the right field line which Gonzalez misplayed, and the batter ended up on third base on what was ruled a single and a two-base error. Trevino then followed with a sacrifice fly to center, and the Yankees had a 2-1 lead on the unearned run. In the 6th, Aaron Judge drew a lead-off walk from Quantrill, and then stole second base and took third on a wild throw by C Austin Hedges. On a full count, the next batter, Rizzo, got a ball to his liking and pulled it to deep right for a two-run homer, upping the lead to 4-1 and ending Quantrill's night. He had pitched well, but his two mistakes had cost him dearly.

The Guardians placed runners on in both the 7th and 8th innings, with Myles Straw's single with one out in the 7th ending Cole's evening. His replacement, Jonathan Loaisiga, allowed another single to Kwan, but got out of the jam by inducing Rosario to ground into a double play. The 8th inning played along similar lines as Ramírez hit a lead-off single, only to be immediately erased when Naylor grounded into a twin killing. In the 9th, Wandy Peralta got Gimenez to ground out for the first out, then when Terry Francona sent in righty batter Owen Miller in place of Will Brennan, Aaron Boone countered with closer Clay Holmes. He hit Miller with a pitch, but then retired the next two batters to end the game. In a statistical note, Holmes did not get credit for a save, as he did not pitch a full inning with a lead of three runs or less, and when he entered the game the tying run was neither on base, at bat, or in the on-deck circle; so, in spite of the high stakes, it was not considered a save situation. Not that it mattered much: Holmes did his job, and the Yankees were up, one game to none.

Game 2 @ New Yankee Stadium[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Guardians	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	4	9	0
Yankees	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	2
WP: Emmanuel Clase (1-0); LP: Jameson Taillon (0-1)
Home Runs: NY - Giancarlo Stanton (1); CLE - Amed Rosario (1)

Attendance: 47,535

Game 2 was originally scheduled to be played on October 13th in the evening, but that afternoon, MLB announced that it would be rained out and played the following day, October 14th, at 1:07 pm, with the two teams travelling to Cleveland immediately afterwards. It was a must-win game for the Guardians, especially with their ace, Shane Bieber on the mound, facing Nestor Cortes, coming off a break-out season for the Yankees. The weather was also much better, with a bright sunny afternoon.

The Yankees jumped off to a quick lead after the Guardians failed to take advantage of their first two batters of the game reaching base against Cortes on consecutive singles. Cortes got José Ramírez to fly out and Oscar Gonzalez to line out 1B Anthony Rizzo, who then turned an un assisted double play. In the bottom of the inning, Gleyber Torres hit a two-out single against Bieber, and it looked like Giancarlo Stanton had drawn a walk, but the pitch was called strike two, much to manager Aaron Boone's dismay, but it would have been better for Cleveland if it had been a walk, since Stanton then drove a pitch into the right field stands for a two-run homer. Things looked good for New York, as no one could know they would not score any other runs in this game. Not that they did not put runners on base, but starting with Isiah Kiner-Falefa who singled and stole second in the 2nd, the timely hit with a runner in scoring position never came.

The Guardians did not really do much against Cortes until two were out in the 4th, when Josh Naylor singled and Owen Miller drew a walk. Andres Gimenez followed with a single, and Cleveland had a first run, incidentally the first time this postseason that they had scored a run by way other than a home run. Then, in the 5th, Amed Rosario homered to center and the score was tied, which is how it would remain until the end of the 9th. Cortes was replaced by Lou Trivino to start the 6th, but he could not finish the frame, giving way to Jonathan Loaisiga with two outs and a man on second. Bieber did not go much longer, leaving with two outs in the 6th. In the 7th, both teams went down in order in a rarity in a game that saw a ton of runners on base in spite of a relatively low score. Things got very tense in the bottom of the 8th when James Karinchak for the Guardians loaded the bases around two strikeouts, prompting Terry Francona to bring out his closer, Emmanuel Clase, who got Kyle Higashioka to line out to third. Aaron Boone could not pinch hit for his light-hitting catcher, as he was only in the game because Jose Trevino had been pinch-hit for earlier, and doing so again would have implied twisting his defensive alignment into knots, with Kiner-Falefa moving from shortstop to catcher. In the 9th, Boone summoned closer Clay Holmes with one out, and he walked Myles Straw, after which Steven Kwan hit a ball to Rizzo that he failed to field, placing runners on the corners. But Holmes escaped by getting Rosario to ground out to third. Clase pitched the bottom of the 9th without giving up a run, forcing extra innings.

Aaron Boone made an unexpected move to start the 10th, turning to starter Jameson Taillon to pitch in an unfamiliar role. Not that Taillon was hit very hard, but the move blew up in the Yankees' face. Ramírez led off with a weak fly down the third base line which fell between two players, and 3B Josh Donaldson then threw wildly to second base, allowing Ramírez to advance all the way to third base with no one out. Gonzalez followed with a single, giving Cleveland the lead for the first time, and Naylor followed with a drive to deep center on which Harrison Bader had a bad reaction and let the ball fall behind him, allowing Gonzalez to circle the bases for a 4-2 lead. Boone then replaced Taillon with Clarke Schmidt, who arguably should have been there from the start of the inning, but it was too late. Francona kept Clase in the game to close it, and while he walked Donaldson with one out, he then struck out Oswaldo Cabrera and got Kiner-Falefa to ground out to end the game.

Game 3 @ Progressive Field[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Yankees	0	0	2	0	2	0	1	0	0	5	5	0
Guardians	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	6	15	0
WP: Eli Morgan (1-0); LP: Clarke Schmidt (0-1)
Home Runs: NY - Aaron Judge (1), Oswaldo Cabrera (1), Harrison Bader (1)

Attendance: 36 483

Game 3 was a strange one in that the Guardians thoroughly outhit the Yankees, 15 to 5, but needed a tremendous 9th-inning rally to pull out the win, as the Yankees made all of their hits count, with three of them being homers, and the other two putting a runner on base before one of the long balls. The Guardians battered Yankees starter Luis Severino in the first two innings, but ended up scoring only two runs when they could have blown the game wide open there and then. Severino's opponent, Triston McKenzie, pitched well but made too many wrong mistakes, as Yogi Berra would have said, allowing a pair of two-run homers in his five innings of work, and leaving with a deficit.

It was all Cleveland at the start as Steven Kwan led off the bottom of the 1st with a double, then went to third on a one-out single by José Ramírez. Josh Naylor followed with another single to score a run, but Severino managed to retire the next two batters to get out of a trying inning with only a 1-0 deficit. The 2nd inning wasn't easier, though, as Gabriel Arias led off with a double, followed by a single by Austin Hedges. With one out, Kwan singled to make it 2-0, but once again Severino was able to escape with only one run allowed as he retired two dangerous hitters in Amed Rosario and Ramírez. And then, that early lead was quickly erased as in the 3rd, as Oswaldo Cabrera doubled with one out and after a second out, Aaron Judge, never mind having been booed by thankless Yankees fans in Game 2 for wearing the Golden Sombrero, did what he does best in crushing a pitch some 450 feet into the outfield seats for a two-run homer. Severino settled down after his early troubles and began to mow down the Guardians consistently, retiring all six men he faced in the 3rd and 4th innings.

The Yankees took the lead in the 5th on another two-run homer, this one by Cabrera with one out with Harrison Bader on first base courtesy of a single. Sam Hentges took over for McKenzie in the 6th and in the 7th the Yankees got their fifth hit of the game - and it resulted in a fifth run as it was a solo shot by Bader off Hentges. The Guardians had finally woken up from three-plus innings of torpor in the bottom of the 6th, when Andres Gimenez and Arias chased Severino with back-to-back two-out singles, and Lou Trivino was greeted by another hit by pinch-hitter Will Brennan. Following Bader's homer, the score was thus 5-3, in the Yankees' favor, and so it stayed until the 9th. The bottom of the 9th started with lefty Wandy Peralta on the mound, with closer Clay Holmes apparently unavailable for the Yankees. Peralta retired Luke Maile on a fly ball for the first out, but Myles Straw followed with a single, soon imitated by Kwan. That spelled the end for Peralta, who gave way to Clarke Schmidt, not normally the pitcher the Yankees would have wanted to see in such a tight situation, but apparently the best one at Aaron Boone's disposal at that point. He completely failed in his mission, as Rosario greeted him with a single to cut the lead to 5-4. Next up was the Guardians' most dangerous hitter, Ramírez, and Boone elected to face him. Ramírez hit a fourth consecutive single that loaded the bases. Schmidt struck out Naylor for the second out, but Oscar Gonzalez, the hero of the marathon Game 2 win in the Wild Card Series and again in Game 2 of this series with the go-ahead hit in the 10th, found some more heroics, hitting a single to center that scored Kwan and Rosario, giving the Guardians a stunning 6-5 win and a two-games-to-one lead in the series.

Game 4 @ Progressive Field[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Yankees	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4	6	1
Guardians	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	1
WP: Gerrit Cole (2-0); LP: Cal Quantrill (0-2); SV: Wandy Peralta (1)
Home Runs: NY - Harrison Bader (3); CLE - Josh Naylor (1)

Attendance: 36,728

The Yankees stayed alive with a 4-2 win on Game 4 in Cleveland, behind a solid performance by their ace, Gerrit Cole, who for the second time in this series came out on top in a confrontation with Cal Quantrill - the same match-up of starting pitchers as in Game 1. Cole pitched 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and a walk, while striking out 8 opponents. He used 110 pitches and every ounce of energy he had to deliver the kind of big outing his team was hoping for when they signed him to an enormous contract prior to the 2020 season. Quantrill was not bad either, but he allowed 3 runs in 5 innings - all in the first two innings - and that was enough to ensure the Yankees led all game, forcing the Guardians to play catch-up ball. There was one change to the Yankees' line-up, with SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa benched after being ruthlessly criticized by nervous Yankees fans for not contributing on either side of the ball in the first three games; to replace him, Aaron Boone moved rookie Oswaldo Cabrera from the outfield to shortstop, and inserted Aaron Hicks, a frequent target of Yankees fans himself this season, in the line-up, but since the game was on the road, having Hicks booed every time he came up was not a concern.

The Yankees got on the board in the 1st inning, on a lead-off single by Gleyber Torres off Quantrill, followed by a stolen base and, after a strikeout of Aaron Judge, a single by Anthony Rizzo. They then added two more runs in the 2nd when Josh Donaldson led off with a single and Harrison Bader homered after one out. For Bader, it was already his third long ball in four games, after not hitting a single one after being acquired by the Yankees in a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals at the trading deadline. Granted, he missed a number of weeks with an injury after the trade, but that made him the latest beneficiary of the Yankees pinstripes effect, in which a veteran player finds seemingly unknown or long-forgotten talents after donning New York's iconic uniform for the first time (for other examples, see Matt Carpenter or Jose Trevino during the regular season). In any case, it was now 3-0, and the Yankees were in control.

The Guardians managed to claw back a couple of runs against Cole in the 3rd and 4th innings, the first when Steven Kwan reached on a force out with two outs in the 3rd and scored after Amed Rosario and José Ramírez followed with singles. Unfortunately for Cleveland, what looked like a potential big inning ended when Ramírez was thrown out at second on a close play, especially as Josh Naylor then led off the 4th with a homer - there are big ifs of course, but had Ramírez been safe and Naylor then gone deep, Cleveland would have been in the lead and not trailing 3-2. Cole settled down after the homer, though, and hardly gave Cleveland anything else for the remainder of his outing. Quantrill had also settled down after his rough first two innings, but when he gave way to Eli Morgan in the 6th, the Yankees tacked on an important insurance run on a single by Judge, a double by Rizzo and a sacrifice fly by Giancarlo Stanton.

There had been some controversy following Game 3 regarding Aaron Boone's bullpen usage, especially whether Clay Holmes was available or not in the fateful 9th inning - Boone said no while Holmes said no one had told him that. The Yankees had papered over the cracks before this game and Boone brought out Holmes in the 8th with the top of the order coming up. He walked Kwan, but gave up nothing else, and then Wandy Peralta was asked to pitch the 9th. He of course had been on the mound when things began to unravel in the 9th inning the day before but his outing went better this time, as he got Naylor and Oscar Gonzalez to ground out, and then struck out Andres Gimenez to end the game. The two teams would need to return to New York to determine a winner tomorrow.

Game 5 @ New Yankee Stadium[edit]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Guardians	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	8	0
Yankees	3	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	x	5	6	0
WP: Nestor Cortes (1-); LP: Aaron Civale (0-1)
Home Runs: NY - Giancarlo Stanton (2), Aaron Judge (2)

Attendance: 48,178

Game 5 was originally scheduled to be played in the evening on October 17th, but was postponed after waiting in vain for two and a half hours for the skies to clear. It was thus postponed to the afternoon of October 18th. The extra day allowed Yankees manager Aaron Boone to change his starting pitcher, replacing Jameson Taillon with Nestor Cortes, the Game 2 starter, going on short rest. The Guardians, for their part, stuck with their original plan of starting the well-rested Aaron Civale. Because the NLCS was also scheduled to start that evening, it would mark the first time in postseason history that different rounds overlapped on the same day.

The game was essentially decided in the 1st inning. After Steven Kwan led off with a single for Cleveland, Amed Rosario attempted to put down a bunt but popped up and Cortes made quick work of the next two hitters, completing the inning in fewer than 10 pitches. The contrast couldn't be bigger with Civale's outing: he walked Gleyber Torres on four pitches, then after striking out Aaron Judge, he hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch and gave up an opposite field homer to Giancarlo Stanton for a quick 3-0 lead by New York. Josh Donaldson followed with a single and that was it for Civale, who never found his command. Sam Hentges replaced him and got the last two outs, but Cleveland was in a deep hole, and would never be able to climb out, wasting the two good opportunities it would have to do so.

In the 2nd, Judge took Hentges deep, although this was a solo shot, so a lot less damaging than Stanton's. It was noted that Judge had set a record by homering in a fourth winner-take-all postseason game for his career, but that was worth what it was forth, given that two of these were in Wild Card Games. Cleveland had a shot at getting back in the game in the 3rd when Austin Hedges led off with a single then after one out, Kwan lifted a soft fly down the third base line; a trio pf players converged to catch it, and SS Oswaldo Cabrera crashed into LF Aaron Hicks, with the ball falling to the ground and Hicks having to leave the game with a knee injury. The play was generously ruled a single, and the next batter, Rosario, drew a walk to load the bases. The Guardians now had their most dangerous hitter at the plate in José Ramírez, but he could only lift a fly ball to center field for a sacrifice fly, after which Oscar Gonzalez flied out as well. The lead was cut to 4-1, but Cleveland had missed a golden opportunity to make the game a lot closer. The Yankees added a run in the 5th on a lead-off walk to Torres by Trevor Stephan. Torres then stole second and was driven in by a Rizzo single.

The Guardians again wasted an opportunity in the 6th, after Jonathan Loaisiga had replaced Cortes. He gave up back-to-back singles to Rosario and Ramírez to start the inning, and Gonzalez followed with a grounder to third, putting both runners in scoring position. Josh Naylor then hit a scorching line drive through the box, but it was caught by SS Cabrera and Gabriel Arias struck out, stranding both runners. That was really Cleveland's last opportunity. Loaisiga pitched a second scoreless inning, Clay Holmes then handled the 8th, and thanks to the day of rest caused by the rainout, Wandy Peralta was available for the 9th, and he took care of business in spite of allowing a couple of singles. The Yankees were moving on, but had little time to celebrate, as they had to immediately head to Houston to face the Astros in Game 1 of the ALCS the next day.