07 October, 2017
Pitcher Trevor Bauer will start for Cleveland, while Sonny Gray gets the nod for NY.
When Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced Sonny Gray as his American League Division Series Game 1 starter, I was a bit surprised.
The Yankees put seven of Bauer's curveballs in play on October 5, the most of any of his pitches. They started Judge with curveballs in the strike zone, fed him fastballs at or above the numbers and finished him off by enticing him to chase breaking pitches in the dirt. The Indians' front office had to chuckle a little bit at that one too.
"It wasn't a huge shock because of the little bit of experience I had dealing with it previous year", Bauer said. But I was completely comfortable with our decision to do what we did for a number of reasons. He is 9-5 with a 4.53 ERA in 19 postseason games (18 starts). Gregorius erased the blunder of a first inning with the game-tying home run, putting the Yankees back in the game and sending fans into a frenzy. These days, he's a fine pitcher, not an excellent one.
"We'll adjust his routine, and obviously, we'll check with him to see how he's feeling, but throwing has never been much of a hurdle for him", said Francona. He then struck two more batters out in the eighth but walked two in the inning forcing Terry Francona to bring in his closer Cody Allen early.
Allen retired the side in the ninth to pick up the save.
Aaron Judge, who hit one of those homers Tuesday, went down three times on Bauer curveballs. "I took the props off this year, though, so we should be good". "He'll be back tomorrow", Girardi said. He did reach base once, coming on courtesy of a wild pitch from Bauer on a strikeout.
Bauer held the Yankees hitless and scoreless through the first five innings.
Trevor Bauer set the tone early and made the Yankees realize that he had his good stuff Thursday night.
With bases loaded and no outs, the Indians could have taken control of the game right away in the second inning. Giovanny Urshela flied out to end the inning. With one runner on, Judge blasted a high pitch deep and out of the park for a two-run shot.
That was the price the Cleveland Indians paid the New York Mets for Jay Bruce on August 10, but more importantly, the team picked up $4.3 million of the $13 million owed to the outfielder for the remainder or the season.
"It's a good thing he showed up tonight".
Bruce almost caught Encarnacion on the bases, and as he finished a home-run trot that was more of a sprint, Cleveland's fans hollered "Bruuuuuuuce" like a crowd at a Springsteen concert. "I've thrown against them a couple times this year, and in the past I've thrown against them".
The Indians added to their lead in the fifth inning, thanks to two wild pitches by reliever Adam Warren.
The Twins' second baseman, Brian Dozier, put the first run on the board with a solo home run off of Luis Severino.
Not with Trevor Bauer looking even more dominant than likely 2017 AL Cy Young award-winner Corey Kluber on the mound. "The Yankees have a lot of offense so you can not get too comfortable with a 3-0 lead early in the game", senior Twins fan Brock Margenthaler said.
