Gerrit Cole pitched seven strong innings and Harrison Bader homered as the New York Yankees evened their American League Division Series at two games apiece with a 4-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field.
Facing elimination, Cole delivered to partially put to rest the demons of a similar situation when he lost the AL Wild Card game 5-2 in Boston last year.
"Preparing for this game, there's an opportunity to clinch or an opportunity to go home, I didn't approach the game any different", he said. "I just went out there and did my job."
Cole allowed two runs and eight hits to beat Cleveland for the second time in eight days and Bader went deep for the third time in the series.
Josh Naylor homered for the Guardians, who are looking to reach the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2016.
"You know if you would have told me back in March, we just signed up to play Game 5 in New York to go to the ALCS, I would have jogged back to New York", said Cleveland manager Terry Francona."I'm excited."
Holmes added "Gerrit showed up huge tonight and now we're headed back to the Bronx, where we like our chances. We all believed we could win two games, and this is the first step."
Cole delivers, Yankees force Game 5
Bader continued his mastery of Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill, his fifth career hit in six at-bats against him putting New York ahead 3-0 with a 429-foot shot into the left-field bleachers.
Cleveland scored once in the third, but it could have been more as Ramírez dropped a bloop into left field that scored Steven Kwan.
Thinking he had a chance to take an extra base, Ramírez went about halfway to second before realizing he had no chance and got thrown out retreating to first.
The Guardians cut the Yankees' lead to 3-2 when Naylor took Cole deep in the bottom of the fourth and as he circled the bases, he swung his arms back in forth as if he was rocking a baby.
"Whatever", Cole said when asked if it bothered him. "It's cute. I didn't see it in the moment, and it wouldn't have bothered me in the moment, and it just is kind of funny."
Cole exited after throwing 110 pitches with Yankees manager Aaron Boone summoning closer Clay Holmes in the eighth. The All-Star reliever was held out of Game 3 with New York ahead 5-3 in the ninth.
Holmes struck out Amed Rosario and Jose Ramirez in the eighth before handing things over to Wandy Peralta, who was the loser on Saturday. He picked up the save in this game.
"Our guys had that look in their eyes tonight and it starts with Gerrit", first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. "It's a complete win for us and that's who we are and that's the wins we need to have."
Civale, Cortes set for Bronx decider
Due to rain, Game 5 was pushed back a day to Tuesday at 4:07pm. Francona will stick with Aaron Civale, who was hit hard by the Yankees twice this season.
"It's going to be exciting", Civale said. "Everyone that was there saw what it was like. It's going to be crazy, it's going to be screaming and a lot of fans. But at the end of the day it's noise."
Nestor Cortes will pitch on three days rest in Game 5 after taking a no-decision in Game 2.