The New York Yankees moved past the Cleveland Indians last week in a sweeping victory, matching them up against the Tampa Bay Rays. There’s no question that the Yanks and the Rays have bad blood, so everyone highly anticipated this series.
With a long history of bench-clearing brawls and suspensions, game one was no disappointment. Gerrit Cole was on the mound, resulting in the Yankees being favorited by 1.5 runs; however, Yankees manager Aaron Boone joked that maybe they weren’t. “We’re clearly the underdog now. They’re the big, bad No. 1 seed of the AL East.”
Through the first five innings, the game was very back and forth. The Yanks led through the 3rd, and then the Rays took the lead in the 4th. It wasn’t until the 8th inning that the Yankees decided to open the game up. They put up five runs, including a Grand Slam homer from Giancarlo Stanton in an inning that lasted more than 30 minutes.
Per Katie Sharp, the Yankees are the first team in MLB history to score 9+ runs in each of their first three games of a postseason. This statistic is supported heavily by the sheer power they are showing this postseason. In last night’s contest the Yankees smacked four home runs, including Giancarlo Stanton’s game-sealing grand slam in the 8th. The other three came off the bats of Clint Frazier (Solo), Kyle Higashioka (Solo), and Aaron Judge (Solo).
Another huge contribution at the plate came from center fielder Aaron Hicks, who had his first three-hit game in the postseason. His biggest came before the Grand Slam in the 8th inning as he drove in the insurance run to make the game 5-3. With the Yankees leading the series going into game two, fans can expect a fantastic finish.
