Yankees 8, Cleveland 1: The offense awakens

The Yankees picked up their second straight win in a row, coming from behind to comfortably beat the Indians 8-1. Michael Brantley’s 1st inning home run put the Indians up 1-0 and the recent trend of anemic Yankee offense looked set to continue. The Yankees could only muster two hits and zero runs over the first five innings as Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco looked to be in complete control.

Things turned around in the top of the sixth when Brett Gardner’s leadoff single followed by Clint Frazier’s double gave the Yankees 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Didi Gregorius proceeded to pop out, reminding us just how awful the team has been in these situations recently. However, after an intentional walk to Aaron Judge loaded the bases, Chase Headley came through with an RBI sac fly to center. A walk to Todd Frazier once again loaded the bases for Jacoby Ellsbury with two outs.

The much maligned Ellsbury lifted a fly ball deep to right field where it hit off the base of the wall just beyond Abraham Almonte to clear the bases with a 3-RBI triple, breaking the game open at 4-1. It was a nice moment for Ellsbury, who has struggled for much of this year. The triple knocked Carrasco out of the game and his replacement Bryan Shaw quickly yielded an RBI single to Ronald Torreyes, making the game 5-1, good guys.

The 5-1 lead would be more than enough for Luis Severino who turned it yet another phenomenal performance. The Yankees’ rising star yielded just one hit and one walk after the home run by Brantley and struck out nine batters over 6.2 innings. His season ERA is down to 2.91 as he continues to perform like a true ace.

After tasting what it’s like to score multiple runs in one inning, the Yankees decided they hadn’t had enough, tacking on against Mike Clevinger in the 7th. Clint Frazier walked with one out and moved to 3rd on a single by Didi bringing up Aaron Judge with 1st and 3rd. Our favorite large adult son proceeded to rope a ball to right-center that somehow cleared the wall for a three-run home run, number 35 on the year. His power is truly something to behold.

Tommy Kahnle got the final out in the 7th before Adam Warren and Chasen Shreve threw scoreless inning to close out the game 8-1. Overall it was an excellent game for the Yankees who wind up splitting the series with Cleveland 2-2 and carry a two-game winning streak into a three-game set in Toronto.

The Yankees have tomorrow off, but will be back at it again on Tuesday. CC Sabathia is expected to take the mound against J.A. Happ at 7:07 EST.

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