Bieber's start, Naylor's sac push Guardians past Yankees
CLEVELAND (AP) — Shane Bieber shook off a rough first inning to pitch seven, and Josh Naylor hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly to give the Cleveland Guardians a 3-2 win over the New York Yankees on Monday night in a rematch of last year's AL Division Series.
Bieber (1-0) looked to be in trouble after giving up two runs and three hits to New York's first four batters. But Cleveland's ace settled in and retired 17 of 18 in one stretch. He allowed two runs and five hits.
Naylor, who became a target for Yankees fans during the playoffs for his “rock the baby” gesture after hitting a home run in Game 4, put the Guardians up 3-2 in the seventh when his liner off Ian Hamilton (0-1) scored Steven Kwan.
The Yankees threatened to tie in the eighth when Gleyber Torres tripled leading off. But he was stranded by Guardians reliever James Karinchak, who after being called for a clock violation before his first pitch, retired Aaron Judge on an infield pop and struck out Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton.
The animated Karinchak pounded his chest after fanning Stanton and bounded off the mound before chest bumping catcher Mike Zunino so hard he knocked the mask off his head.
Emmanuel Clase worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save.
Zunino had three doubles and drove in a run for the Guardians, who were up 2-1 on the Yankees last October before being eliminated.
Judge went 0 for 3 with a walk, extending his on-base streak to 43 straight games, the longest for the Yankees since 2005. It's also the third-longest on-base run for New York in the past 82 years, eclipsed only by Derek Jeter (57) and Alex Rodriguez (53).
Stanton drove in both New York runs with a double off Bieber.
With DJ LeMahieu getting a day off, Gleyber Torres moved into the leadoff spot and got the Yankees going right away.
Torres doubled on Bieber's first pitch and New York loaded the bases before Stanton ripped his two-run double — clocked at 116.3 mph — off the wall in left-center. Bieber, though, buckled down and got three outs to avoid further damage.
JUDGE AND JURY
Judge's on-base streak is hardly his only impressive statistic. The AL's reigning MVP has put together quite a resume in eight seasons.
“He does things that you’re not supposed to be able to do,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “Can steal a base. He’s playing center field. Just a pretty incredible player. I hope we don’t see it. I know it’s good for baseball. I kind of hope we don’t see it for three days, but pretty impressive.
“And I guess the best part of it is he seems like a wonderful kid, so that makes it even better.”
TRAINER'S ROOM
Yankees: RHP Luis Severino (lat strain) threw a successful 22-pitch bullpen session as he continues to make progress. Severino said he threw all of his pitches, including a split-finger fastball he's been working on. Manager Aaron Boone didn't have a timetable for Severino. "First thing was getting through today, and it sounds like that went pretty well,” Boone said. “So we’ll see. I don’t know exactly the plan.”
Guardians: RHP Aaron Civale (strained oblique) is back on the injured list for the fourth time in two seasons. Civale pitched well in his first two starts, but felt tightness following his outing on Friday and the club said imaging tests taken Monday showed the strain.
UP NEXT
Yankees RHP Gerrit Cole (2-0, 0.73) faces the Guardians for the first time since beating them twice in last year's playoffs. Hunter Gaddis (0-0, 3.72) starts for Cleveland.
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