Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer, his first home run of this postseason, and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 AL Championship Series lead.
Judge had hit a sacrifice fly in a two-run second that put the Yankees ahead 3-0. With New York leading 4-2 lead in the seventh, the likely AL MVP drove a fastball at the letters from Hunter Gaddis 414 feet to center for his 14th career postseason home run.
In a matchup of aces who had off nights, Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee got just just four outs in the shortest start of his professional career and an erratic Gerrit Cole was chased after four walks in 4 1/3 innings.
Winner Clay Holmes, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings. José Ramírez hit a ninth-inning home run off Luke Weaver, just the second earned run New York’s bullpen has allowed over 23 1/3 innings in six postseason games.
After a day off, Game 3 is tomorrow (Thursday) in Cleveland. The Yankees lead the ALCS 2-0 for the first time since 2009 against the Los Angeles Angels.
