Tanner Bibee allowed two runs while gutting out six innings and Steven Kwan’s second hit of the night ignited a three-run rally in the sixth, as the Cleveland Guardians won their fifth straight game, 3-2, over the visiting New York Yankees on Tuesday.
Bibee (2-2), who entered his fifth start of the season with a 5.85 ERA, allowed a homer to Ben Rice on the game’s first pitch, then didn’t allow another run until the sixth inning despite yielding four other hits, walking three and throwing 106 pitches. That effort kept Cleveland in position to win its second straight over the Yankees and improve to 14-9 on the season after starting 3-6.
Aaron Judge went 4-for-4 to raise his American League-leading average to .411 for New York, which managed just six hits while dropping its third in four games after winning five in a row. Yankees starter Will Warren allowed just one hit and a walk while striking out five, and retired 10 straight batters until the sixth, when he gave up back-to-back singles to Kwan and Nolan Jones to open the frame.
On came Mark Leiter Jr. (2-2), who struck out Jose Ramirez. Leiter then delivered a wild pitch that allowed a stealing Kwan to score from second and a run-scoring double by Kyle Manzardo to tie it at 2.
With runners on first and third and two out in the sixth, Cleveland went ahead as Angel Martinez’s looping liner over second base ate up Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, allowing Manzardo to score the go-ahead run.
Rice took Bibee’s first pitch of the game to the opposite field, over the 19-foot-high wall in left field.
The Yankees, however, managed just one other run against Bibee. That came in the sixth when Judge doubled, went to third on Paul Goldschmidt’s infield single and came home via Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s sacrifice fly to right-center field.
Cade Smith retired the side in the ninth on just four pitches to record his second consecutive save in the series for Cleveland, which is 7-1 at home.
–Field Level Media
