Gerrit Cole starts Sunday night for New York, looking to send the ALDS to a decisive Game 5 back home in the Bronx. Cal Quantrill pitches for Cleveland.
The 32-year-old Cole went 13-8 with a 3.50 ERA in 33 starts this season for the AL East champions. The ace right-hander pitched 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball in the Yankees’ 4-1 win against Quantrill and the Guardians on Tuesday night.
“I thought we were solid in general, kind of in all aspects,” Cole said of his Game 1 outing, “and so looking to find little ways to improve and stay right there.”
Cleveland rallied for a dramatic 6-5 victory against New York on Saturday night, taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. Rookie Oscar Gonzalez hit a two-run single with two outs in the ninth inning.
The 27-year-old Quantrill is making his second career postseason start. He went 9-0 with a 3.28 ERA in 19 home starts this year. He has not absorbed a loss in his last 36 home starts overall, the second-longest such streak in MLB history.
“I think some of it’s probably a little bit of randomness, but I do enjoy pitching here,” Quantrill said. “Like I said, I just enjoy the routine of working here and preparing and, you know, things have gone well.”
The winner of the New York-Cleveland series will face the best in the regular season Houston Astros who swept Seattle in the ALDS.
Astros are going back to the AL Championship Series for the sixth straight year.
One big swing by Jeremy Peña was enough.
Peña homered in the 18th inning, and Houston beat the Seattle Mariners 1-0 on Saturday for a three-game sweep of their AL Division Series. Luis Garcia worked five innings for the win, finishing a stellar effort by the Astros bullpen.
Houston started its ALCS streak with its 2017 World Series championship. It was eliminated in the ALCS in 2018 and 2020, and it lost in the World Series in 2019 against Washington and last year against Atlanta.
“Once you’ve been through it and then you go through it again and again and again, and then you sort of expect excellence, and that’s what this team expects out of itself,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said.
