CLEVELAND — Juan Soto hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning and the New York Yankees advanced to their 41st World Series — and first in 15 years — by beating the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday night.
Baseball's biggest brand is going back to October's main stage. Soto, who was acquired in a seven-player trade with San Diego in December, moved the Bronx Bombers into position with one big swing against Hunter Gaddis. «I was all over it, I was all over it,» Soto told TBS of the decisive at-bat. «That was the only thing I was thinking.
I was just saying to myself, 'You're all over that guy. You're all over that guy.'… I just had to make good contact, and I did.» It was the second extra-inning home run in a potential series-clinching game in Yankees postseason history.
The other was by Aaron Boone, the team's current manager, in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees will try to win their 28th title against either the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers.