With the Yankees looking to take a 2-0 ALCS lead over the Guardians on Tuesday, Gerrit Cole lacked his best stuff for the second time this postseason. While the ace twirled a dominant clincher in Game 4 of the ALDS, he also allowed four runs (three earned) over five innings in Game 1 of that series against the Royals. However, the Yankees won that night. They did the same on Tuesday, beating Cleveland, 6-3, despite another disappointing outing from Cole. The reigning Cy Young winner only lasted 4.1 innings at Yankee Stadium, totaling six hits, two earned runs, four walks, four strikeouts and 89 pitches. Cole became more erratic as the game went on, repeatedly loading the bases over his last two frames. “I lost a little bit of the zone,” Cole said, adding that he walked too many batters. “But I think they threw a lot of quality at-bats together, and they strung them together, and they obviously won some of those long at-bats. They ended up putting enough pressure on us that it didn’t allow us to continue to cruise and keep going deep. It’s kind of credit to them.” While Cole left the bags juiced in the fourth, he wasn’t as lucky with the Yankees leading 3-0 in the fifth, as he found himself in another bases-loaded jam after two singles and a walk. A Josh Naylor sac fly got the Guardians their first run, and Cole later walked Lane Thomas to fill the bases again. That ended his night. “I thought he was really good early. Really, really in good rhythm. I thought he established his fastball and was mixing the other secondary pitches well too,” Aaron Boone said of Cole. “Kind of lost that good rhythm he had going, I felt like, in the first few. But he grinded. He competed really hard. They just pressured him a lot those last couple innings where he got a little bit off. “Fortunately, we were able to kind of piece it together there, but he got us off to a good start and gave us a chance to secure the second game.” Following Cole’s departure, Clay Holmes induced a fielder’s choice from Will Brennan, which scored a run. Holmes stopped the damage there, though, getting Austin Hedges to strike out. Austin Wells deserved credit as well, as his right elbow blocked a Holmes sweeper with the bases loaded. “It was all right. Bend, don’t break,” Cole said of his night before praising Holmes. “Clay picked us up. That was huge.” Holmes wasn’t the only reliever to shine, as Tim Hill logged five outs. Boone called the performance “huge.” While Cole did not rise to the occasion on Tuesday, another Yankees superstar did. Aaron Judge, the regular season home run champ, finally crushed his first dinger of the playoffs in the seventh inning. The two-run shot off Hunter Gaddis landed in between the Yankees’ bullpen and Monument Park. It also earned Judge “MVP” chants from a crowd that had long been waiting for such a result. “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 to center here, but the ghosts were pulling out there to Monument Park.” Boone said the Yankees’ dugout also enjoyed the blast. “It gave us some breathing room there,” the manager said. “Game got a little short for us there, having to run through some pen. It was a big swing to kind of give us that cushion. I think the bench was pretty pumped when that happened.” All Rise for Our Captain pic.twitter.com/ZUZLldNegK — New York Yankees (@Yankees) October 16, 2024 Even Judge, typically reserved, couldn’t help but smile as he rounded first base after connecting on the homer. He had not gone deep in the postseason since the 2022 ALDS, also against Cleveland, and he was 2-for-15 (.133) this October entering Game 2. With Judge’s playoff struggles well documented, he said that he’s tried to focus on what’s within his control. “You learn that you can’t ride the highs because there’s always something coming behind it,” said Judge, the presumed AL MVP. “It’s a tough game. It’s a humbling game. “I’ve been booed here plenty of times. There’s been a lot of legends that played here that have been booed. It’s just part of it. You can’t focus on that.” Earlier in the game, the Yankees scored their first run of the breezy night when Judge skied a popup with runners on the corners and nobody out. The play would have been routine under normal conditions, but shortstop Brayan Rocchio dropped the ball and knocked it into right field, allowing Gleyber Torres to score after he led things off with a double. The Bombers scored two more runs in the second inning. The first came on an RBI double from Alex Verdugo. The other came on a Judge sac fly, which followed an intentional walk to Juan Soto that loaded the bases. The Yankees’ dugout, wide-eyed and shocked, couldn’t believe Cleveland walked Soto to get to Judge. But the slugger only inflicted minimal damage before clubbing the Guardians over the head several innings later. Judge and Boone said they understood the Guardians’ decision. “I can’t say I was totally shocked there,” Boone said. “You got to pick your poison sometimes.” “It happened earlier in the year, so it’s not really a surprise,” Judge added, referring to the walk that proceeded his 300th career home run. “[Soto’s] been swinging the bat well recently, and trying to get a double play there, try to get him out of the inning, I would probably walk him too at that point.” The Yankees also scored a run in the sixth when Anthony Rizzo added an RBI double. He got picked off to end the inning, though. Rizzo wasn’t the only one caught napping that inning, as Chisholm also got picked off after a leadoff double. While the Yankees wasted a few opportunities with bad baserunning and untimely hitting — they went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on — and didn’t get much from Cole, Cleveland also failed to capitalize. The Guardians went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. While José Ramírez hit a solo homer off Luke Weaver in the ninth, Cleveland’s poor offensive showing helped the Yankees to yet another postseason victory without an optimal performance. “I don’t think we’ve been playing the best baseball,” Chisholm said, even the Yankees have lost just one playoff game thus far. With the pinstripers now just two wins away from their first World Series appearance since 2009, the ALCS will take a break on Wednesday before resuming in Cleveland on Thursday. The Guardians had yet to announce their Game 3 starter at the time of publication, but Clarke Schmidt will start for the Yankees. The right-hander was fine in his first-ever postseason start, as he allowed two earned runs over 4.2 innings against the Royals in Game 3 of the ALDS. “You’ve got to keep moving,” Boone said. “We need two more here, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We just talked about it; it’s one game at a time. Excited to hand Clarke the ball in Game 3 and hopefully try and get another one.”