Six Pack of Stats: Yankees 5, Guardians 1

Tuesday’s ALDS Game 5 was a winner-take-all showdown in the Bronx. The Guardians really never had much of a chance. After the bottom of the first inning, they were already losing by three runs, and it was all downhill from there. Let’s take a look at how the stats played out.

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The Starters

Cleveland rolled the dice and sent Aaron Civale to the mound in today’s elimination game. He had never started a postseason contest, and things did not fare well for the righthander straight out of the gate. Terry Francona pulled Civale after he pitched only a third of an inning. In his extremely brief outing, Civale gave up three runs on two hits and one walk. He struck out one and left the game with a playoff ERA of 81.00. I’m sure this left Guardians fans wondering why there was no Shane Bieber today.

Civale’s 26-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

The Yankees were banking on another strong start from Nestor Cortés, and they got it! He pitched five solid innings while giving up only one run on three hits, one walk, and two strikeouts. Cortés was pitching on only three days’ rest and when he left after the fifth inning, he owned a 2.70 postseason ERA.

Cortés’ 61-pitch outing looked like this:

Baseball Savant

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Pressure Play

Today’s pressure play goes to none other than José Ramírez. Ramírez hit a sacrifice fly to center field in the top of the third inning with one out. Austin Hedges scored and Steven Kwan advanced to third. The play had a 2.43 LI, and with that tension, Cleveland needed a safety, not a sac out.

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Pressure Cooker

Overall, this game wasn’t very tense, as the Yankees had a handle on it from the start. However, José Ramírez also wins this category, with a 1.24 pLI.

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Top Play

In the bottom of the first inning, Giancarlo Stanton hit a three-run homer on a line drive to right-center field. The play had a .221 WPA.

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Top Performer

Giancarlo Stanton and his three-run home run was all that was needed today. He takes the cake, with a .201 WPA.

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Smackdown

Hardest hit: In the bottom of the second, Aaron Judge smoked a solo home run with an exit velocity of 113.2 mph.

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Weakest contact: Owen Miller’s single on a soft ground ball to Josh Donaldson in the top of the seventh inning dribbled out at 64.6 mph.

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Luckiest hit: Josh Donaldson’s single in the bottom of the first was a lucky one, with a .050 xBA.

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Toughest out: Oswaldo Cabrera was ripped off with his third inning line out. The play had a .770 xBA.

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Longest hit: Aaron Judge’s home run in the second inning went 394 feet to right-center field.

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Magic Number: 4

The Yankees need to win four more games to head to the World Series. It would be their 49th appearance in the Fall Classic.

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Glossary

Hard-hit is any ball off the bat at 95 mph or more
LI measures pressure per play
pLI measures total pressure faced in-game
Whiff a swing-and-miss
WPA win probability added measures contributions to the win
xBA expected batting average

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