There was nothing stopping Trevor Bauer on Thursday night, as the Indians cruised to a 4-0 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS.  

  • New York Yankees: 0 (0-1)
  • Cleveland Indians: 4 (1-0)
  • ALDS Game 1, FINAL, Box Score
  • Progressive Field, Cleveland, OH

Trevor Bauer was too much for the New York Yankees to handle, as they dropped the American League Division Series-opener at Progressive Field to the Cleveland Indians by a score of 4-0.

The 26-year-old fanned eight in 6.2 innings while holding the Yankees’ offense to one walk and two hits. On the other side for the Indians, they set the tone early against Sonny Gray.



They struck first in the bottom of the second inning after Jay Bruce scored on a double play ground ball with the bases-loaded off the bat of Roberto Perez. Although it gave the Indians a 1-0 lead, Gray was lucky the bases-loaded, none-out threat only resulted in one run. 

While Bauer was shutting down the Yankees, he continued to receive run support from his offense.

In the bottom of the fourth, Bruce followed an Edwin Encarnacion walk with a towering home run to right field to put the Indians up by a score of 3-0. Gray was removed from the contest shortly thereafter with just 3.1 innings of work to his name.

That wouldn’t be the last we saw from Bruce, whom the Yankees were in talks to acquire before he was traded to the Indians.

Facing Jaime Garcia in the bottom of the fifth, the former New York Met lined a fly ball to centerfield with Jose Ramirez on third base. Despite Aaron Hicks‘ strong arm, Ramirez was able to come across the plate to extend the lead to 4-0.

Andrew Miller relieved Bauer after Starlin Castro punched a two-out single to right field in the sixth and picked up right where he left off in the 2016 postseason.

The former Yankee fanned three in one inning of work and after walking Brett Gardner with two outs in the eighth, manager Terry Francona called upon closer Cody Allen to register four-out save starting with Aaron Judge.

Allen, who fanned 24 batters over 18.2 innings of shutout baseball in last year’s postseason, fanned Judge to finish off the eighth. In the ninth, he overcame a two-out single by Castro to claim Game 1 of the ALDS.

Shut ‘Em Down:

With eight strikeouts tonight, Trevor Bauer tied Todd Stottlemyre for the most strikeouts against the Yankees in an ALDS Game 1. Back in 1998, Stottlemyre fanned eight over eight innings of two-run ball in a 2-0 losing effort as a member of the Texas Rangers.

Gray Skies:

Sonny Gray went just 3.1 innings while allowing three runs. When combined with Luis Severino‘s 0.1 innings of work in the AL Wild Card Game, it marks the second time in Yankees’ history that their starters in the first two postseason contest failed to go four innings. The first time happened back in 1956 when Whitey Ford and Don Larsen failed to complete four innings, per Baseball Reference’s Play Index.

Sombrero Time:

After going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, Aaron Judge became the first Yankees’ hitter to wear the “Golden Sombrero” in the ALDS since Johnny Damon accomplished the unfortunate feat in Game 3 of the 2009 ALDS. The only other to strike out four times in a division series contest was Derek Jeter, who did it in Game 4 of the 2004 ALDS.

What’s Next:

The Yankees will look to even up the series at one game apiece and will turn to veteran left-hander CC Sabathia to do it.

Sabathia made his final regular-season start on Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays, tossing 5.2 shutout innings (4H, 0BB, 6K) to win his third straight start to finish a relatively solid season (14-5, 3.69 ERA).

A source for optimism comes from the 37-year-old is his ability to be a show-stopper. Following a Yankees’ loss this during the regular season, Sabathia went 9-0 with a 1.71 ERA in 10 starts following a Yankees loss.

First pitch is scheduled for 5:08 p.m. ET from Progressive Field and can be caught nationally on MLB Network.