CLEVELAND — If this series was a postseason preview — and the three games took on that kind of intensity in the visiting clubhouse — then it ended how it usually does whenever the Yankees face an American League Central “power” in the playoffs.
The Yankees fed off a pair of three-run rallies to finish off a three-game sweep of the Guardians in an 8-4 matinee victory Wednesday in front of 31,586 at Progressive Field. It was their sixth sweep of the season, their first of at least three games in Cleveland since 2007 and sufficient vengeance for losing two of three to the Guardians at home last week.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was vilified by a booing crowd, followed up his game-winning home run Tuesday with a stolen base, two runs scored and three RBIs.
Jose Caballero added two hits and two RBIs, and Trent Grisham chipped in two hits and three runs scored. Not bad considering the game started with those two narrowly avoiding an ugly collision in the right-center-field gap.
With Caballero — the season-opening shortstop — in right field to make room for Anthony Volpe, he and Grisham bumped into each other. Grisham hit his head on the wall after making a two-handed catch while calling for the ball the whole way.
The bottom-five in the lineup accounted for six hits, four walks, seven runs and six RBI.
Grisham put the Yankees ahead, 4-3, in the sixth inning with a nifty slide to the inside of home plate, turning Caballero’s foul to shallow left field into a sacrifice fly. Volpe added a slump-busting two-out RBI double as the late-game rout got started.
The five runs charged to Parker Messick were the rookie’s career-high through 21 starts.
The score was 3-3 after four innings as both teams played sloppy defense.
Chisholm sandwiched a two-run triple — which included right fielder Angel Martinez slipping to his butt after corralling the ball — between two errors. Caballero wound up on second after a bunt single was thrown away by Messick, and Chisholm scored when Volpe reached on a misplayed grounder to second base.
The Yankees survived Volpe’s throwing error in the third inning and he atoned with a nice sliding play to cut down a runner at third base in the ninth.
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Carlos Rodon created his own mess with back-to-back leadoff walks — both of which came around to score — in the fourth.
Rodon (2-2) battled back from seeing his second pitch land on the left-field concourse courtesy of Martinez’s second career leadoff home run and second blast of the series. He turned in a quality start — three runs on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in six innings — to save a bullpen that had pitched 10 ⅔ innings over the previous two days combined.
The Yankees (41-26) improved to a season-high 15 games over .500. They have won their last seven playoff series (including a one-gamer) against Central Division opponents.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
