Guardians rally past Yankees, tie series

Ronald Blum ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK – Oscar Gonzalez singled in the go-ahead run with Cleveland’s second straight bloop hit in the 10th inning, and the Guardians overcame a two-run deficit to beat the New York Yankees 4-2 Friday and even their best-of-five AL Division Series at one game apiece.

José Ramírez led off the 10th against Jameson Taillon with an opposite-field popup that dropped 200 feet from home plate, just in front of left fielder Oswaldo Cabrera for a double. Ramírez hustled all the way and slid into third headfirst when third baseman Josh Donaldson threw the ball past second for an error.

Gonzalez, whose 15th-inning homer Saturday completed a first-round sweep of Tampa Bay in the wild-card round, followed with a 59 mph,164-foot opposite-field flare into short right off Taillon, who made his first big league relief appearance after 143 starts. Josh Naylor added an RBI double that bounced on a hop off the wall in rightcenter.

“Wejusttryfindawayonbase,”Naylor said. “If it’s a bloop hit, it’s a bloop hit. If it’s a hard-hit single, double, whatever the case it, we just try to hustle. try to make things happen on the field, try to put pressure on the defense.”

Winner Emmanuel Clase pitched 213 innings, his most in the major leagues, and combined with Trevor Stephan and Karinchak for 413 innings of one-hit relief as Cleveland stopped a six-game postseason losing streak to the Yankees.

Clase retired Kyle Higashioka on a lineout to Ramírez for the final out of the eighth after James Karinchak walked the bases loaded. Clase threw 33 pitches, 10 more than his season high.

“It was preparing mentally and remembering when I was a starter in the minor leagues and try to do the same thing,” Clase said through a translator. Guardians relievers have thrown172 3 scoreless innings this season.

The series shifts to Cleveland for Game 3 on Saturday night. There is no travel day because a rainout Thursday had pushed Game 2 to Friday.

Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer in the first inning, and Cleveland tied the score against All-Star Nestor Cortes when Andrés Giménez had an RBI single in the fourth and Amed Rosario homered in the fifth.

Aaron Judge went 0 for 5 with four strikeouts and dropped to 0 for 8 with seven strikeouts and a walk in the series. Fresh off setting the AL home run record with 62, he was booed by some fans in the sellout crowd of 47,355 after whiffing against Stephan in the seventh.

Judge is 2 for 37 with 27 strikeouts against Cleveland in three playoff series, including all four of his fourstrikeout postseason games.

“It’s the Bronx, man,” Yankees managerAaronBoonesaid.“Greathittersgo 0-for on a given day.”