CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – It can happen in the blink of an eye.
The Guardians had an early lead thanks to a solo home run in the first inning by Amed Rosario. Aaron Civale was on the mound, looking like his pre-injury self and facing the minimum through the first three innings.
With two swings of the bat, everything changed.
Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton hit back-to-back home runs for the Yankees, who used another four-run inning to run away from the Guardians in a 6-1 win to sweep a double header on Saturday at Progressive Field. It was the second time in as many games the Yankees hit consecutive home runs.
“I thought Luke (Maile) and I had a good game plan coming in. Just knowing the names in that lineup, it’s a very good lineup,” Civale said.
“We just tried to attack them the way that works best for me and just stuck with that. Read the game as it went.”
Major League Baseball’s most explosive team has been too much for the Guardiac Kids.
Make no mistake, the Guardians have been one of the feel-good stories in MLB this season while fielding baseball’s youngest roster.
But in taking the first five games of the season series, the Bronx Bombers proved just how far the gap is between Cleveland to MLB’s best.
“The Yankees are built to play into late October,” said manager Terry Francona. “We’re trying to figure out how good we can get. Some days it’s harder than others.”
Comparing them to this historically good Yankees team almost feels unfair. Coming into the weekend series the Pinstripers had rattled off the second-best 77-game start in the Yankees illustrious history.
Both previous campaigns New York authored in 1998 and 1928 ended in World Series triumphs.
Civale made just his third start since his stint on the injured list. He worked five innings of two-run ball at Minnesota on June 21st, but had command issues against Boston last weekend, only making it through four innings.
Rosario’s early blast gave him some early breathing room, but the tightrope walk is always a treacherous one against the Yankees lineup.
“I thought he was real good,” Francona said of Civale. “His line is going to look a little skewed because the last couple runs scored. That’s a pretty good offensive ballclub.”
Civale was charged with four earned runs on four hits, but the offense never provided any more pop to get any closer as New York pulled away. The Yankees utilized a pair of four-run innings in Game 1 of Saturday’s double-header to cruise to a 13-4 win and duplicated that recipe in the seventh inning of Game 2.
Rizzo and Stanton led off the inning with singles and Josh Donaldson doubled to score Rizzo. The Yankees took advantage of a throwing error by Enyel De Los Santos, and got a single and a sacrifice fly to push their lead to 6-1.
If the Yankee offense is the bread, their bullpen is their butter. Coming into the weekend Yankee relievers hadn’t allowed an earned run in their last 16.2 innings. Despite loading the bases in the 7th and 9th innings, the Guardians couldn’t edge any closer.
Since missing two games with a jammed thumb last month, Ramirez has hit just .235 in 13 games He laced a double in the 8th inning to pass Albert Belle for 10th on the list of career doubles with no. 482, but the Guardians were down by five at that point.
While the Yankees are on pace to have a better year than that ’98 squad that won 116 games under Joe Torre, the Guardians look to avoid being swept by New York for the first time since 2007.
“They’ll show up tomorrow and be ready to play. It doesn’t take away how we feel about our group of guys,” Francona said. “We’re just in a different place. We’re trying to see how good we can get.”