Judge homers as Yankees best Guardians in Game 2 of ALCS - ESPN

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge hit a two-run drive into Monument Park for his first home run of this postseason, and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 American League Championship Series lead.

Judge, who entered with just one RBI in the playoffs, hit a sacrifice fly in a two-run second that put the Yankees ahead 3-0. With New York leading 4-2 lead in the seventh, the likely AL MVP drove a fastball at the letters from Hunter Gaddis 414 feet to center for his 14th career postseason home run.

«It was just good to add two more runs there,» Judge told TBS after the game. «Against a tough team, they have a great bullpen, they were fighting and clawing all game. So to give ourselves a couple more runs there. Gleyber (Torres) did his thing getting on base again, like he's been doing all series. It was good to add two.»

In a matchup of aces who had off nights, Cleveland's Tanner Bibee got just just four outs in the shortest start of his professional career and an erratic Gerrit Cole was chased after four walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Winner Clay Holmes, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle combined for 3⅔ scoreless innings. Jose Ramirez hit a ninth-inning home run off Luke Weaver, just the second earned run New York's bullpen has allowed over 23⅓ innings in six postseason games.

«It's been huge,» Judge said of the bullpen. «Past couple of seasons, we've come to the postseason kind of patching our bullpen together. But these guys came in, they're healthy, they're feeling great. Some great performances from quite a few guys at the back end.»

After a day off, Game 3 is Thursday in Cleveland. The Yankees lead the ALCS 2-0 for the first time since 2009 against the Los Angeles Angels.

Teams are 32-5 in the