The New York Yankees have equalized the American League Division Series against the Boston Red Sox. Especially Gary Sanchez presented himself in outstanding form. Previously, the Houston Astros increased to 2-0 behind a dominant Gerrit Cole in the series against the Cleveland Indians.
The Indians got the better start in game 2 in the minute Maid Park: With two outs Shortstop Francisco Lindor beat a Solo-Homerun to the early lead of the visitors. But that was all Cole allowed me to do.
Then the right-hander shone at will and finally came to twelve strikeouts over seven innings (3 H, ER). He also didn’t allow a single walk, making him only the second pitcher ever to manage at least twelve strikeouts without a walk in one game in the postseason. The other one: Hall-of-Famer Tom Seaver, who produced 13 strikeouts for the New York Mets in the NLCS 1973.
Cole is also only the fifth Astros pitcher ever with more than ten strikeouts in a postseason game. The others are Justin Verlander, Dallas Keuchel and Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott. “That’s pretty cool,” Cole said about his performance. “Maybe I’ll have a glass of wine when it’s all over.”
It’s not over for the Astros yet, because after Carlos Carrasco had thrown five shutout innings for Cleveland, he got into trouble in the sixth inning. With runners on 1 and 2 Marwin Gonzalez made a double into the right field. Right fielder Melky Cabrera bounced the ball and not only Jose Altuve but also Alex Bregman crossed the home plate to lead Houston.
It was Bregman who raised Houston to 3:1 in the seventh inning with Solo-Homerun, who now has match point.
Game 3 of the series is scheduled for Monday at 19.30 (live on DAZN) at the Progressive Field in Cleveland/Ohio.
After the Yankees had their difficulties in game 1 at the beginning and did not recover from them, they presented themselves in better shape in game 2 from the start. Aaron Judge opened the game with a solo Homerun in the first inning. In the second, Catcher Gary Sanchez took a shot on the Green Monster.
Shortly afterwards Andrew McCutchen beat an RBI single to 3:0, whereupon Boston manager Alex Cora had seen enough and took starter David Price out of the game with two outs in the inning.
For the first time in his career (299 starts in Regular and Postseason) Price didn’t manage a strikeout in one start and the 1 2/3 innings are his shortest start ever. “It’s hard. Right after we won game 1 and had the chance to raise to 2-0, go out and pitch as I did, it’s just hard,” Price commented on his own performance. Price thus continued a raven black series: In his ten postseason starts, his teams have lost all ten games. Price is also the only starter who hasn’t won a single one with at least ten postseason starts (a total of 70 pitches).
For the Yankees Masahiro Tanaka presented himself in good form and gave only three hits over five innings and one solo homerun of Xander Bogaerts in the fourth inning. Afterwards the Bullpen of New York did not allow anything except one run on two hits.
Offensive Gary Sanchez appeared again and hammered a Monster-3-Run-Homerun into the night sky. His shot in the seventh inning against Eduardo Rodriguez flew 479 feet and was the second longest postseason Homerun ever in the Statcast era.
With a 1-1 in the series it continues in the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx/New York in the night to the Tuesday (1.40 o’clock live on DAZN).
This article was published without prior review by Major League Baseball.