In October, winning ugly can look a lot more beautiful.
For the Yankees, it looks like a 2-0 lead in the ALCS and being two wins away from reaching the World Series.
On yet another night when they wasted early chances to break the game open, the Yankees still did enough to get by before Aaron Judge finally broke out of his slumber with a two-run homer that capped off a 6-3 win over the Guardians on a chilly Tuesday night in The Bronx.
The Yankees seem to be playing the same game almost every night in October, but so far against a pair of AL Central teams, it has proved to be a winning recipe.
“We’re not satisfied,” said Anthony Rizzo, who delivered a pair of hits in another gutsy effort in his second game back from breaking two fingers. “We know the Guardians are a very, very good ball club, and being up two games means nothing to us. We need to go into [Cleveland], it’s going to be hostile, and take care of business.”
In Game 2 of the ALCS, Gerrit Cole did not make it through the fifth inning.
The Yankees made a pair of outs on the basepaths in the same inning and went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position, falling to 8-for-52 this postseason.
And yet, the Guardians committed a pair of errors that led to two Yankees runs.
Their starter, Tanner Bibee, lasted only 1 ¹/₃ innings after Alex Cobb went 2 ²/₃ innings in a Game 1 start.
They even intentionally walked Juan Soto to load the bases for Judge in the second inning, though all things considered it worked out as Judge only hit a sacrifice fly.
But Judge ended the night with the last laugh, crushing his first home run of the playoffs with a two-run shot to center field to make it a 6-2 game in the seventh inning.
“I was excited it went out,” Judge said. “You never know on these windy, chilly nights what that ball is going to do when you hit it to center here, but the ghosts were pulling it out there to Monument Park, that’s for sure.”
The Yankees bullpen took care of the rest, as Clay Holmes, Tim Hill (five outs) and Tommy Kahnle (four outs) combined for 3 ²/₃ scoreless innings to bridge the gap to the ninth.
Luke Weaver then allowed his first earned run since Sept. 2, giving up a solo shot to Jose Ramirez, but he still locked down the win.
Coming off a superb performance in the clinching Game 4 of the ALDS, Cole was far less sharp on Tuesday, lasting just 4 ¹/₃ innings while giving up two runs on six hits and four walks while striking out four.
He mostly cruised through three innings before getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, but was not as fortunate in the fifth.
But Holmes, thanks to Austin Wells’ right elbow — which blocked Holmes’ bouncing sweeper from going to the backstop and kept the tying run at third base — got out of the inning with the 3-2 lead.
Judge’s night began in a familiar spot, coming up with Gleyber Torres (three hits) and Soto on base in the first inning.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Yankees in the postseason:
- Aaron Judge finally has his postseason moment as Yankees take control of ALCS
- Aaron Judge sends Yankee Stadium into a frenzy with drought-busting homer
- Guardians make disrespectful Aaron Judge decision — and he can’t make them pay
He got a gift this time around as he skied a pop-up that Brayan Rocchio dropped to allow Torres to score for the 1-0 lead.
The Yankees came back for more in the second inning as Anthony Volpe and Rizzo led off with back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners for Alex Verdugo, who slashed a double down the left-field line to make it 2-0.
One out later, the Guardians intentionally walked Soto to load the bases for Judge and brought in tough righty Cade Smith, who got the likely AL MVP to settle for a sacrifice fly.
The Yankees added an insurance run in the sixth inning as Volpe scored from first on Rizzo’s double, with an assist from a bobble by right fielder Will Brennan.
It could have been a bigger inning if not for Jazz Chisholm Jr. getting picked off second (trying to get a big lead for a double steal) and Rizzo getting caught between second and third on a ball in the dirt.
“I don’t think we’ve been playing the best of baseball as the Yankees,” Chisholm said. “I think we play way better baseball than we’ve been playing since Game 1 of the postseason for us. I think there’s more to come.”
