CLEVELAND — Aaron Judge owned the regular season and Giancarlo Stanton was the star of the playoffs until Juan Soto propelled the New York Yankees into the World Series.
Soto hit a three-run home run with two outs in the 10th inning and the visiting Yankees won Game 5 of the American League Championship Series to reach the World Series with a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday.
Judge hit 58 home runs this season and Stanton has five this postseason, but perhaps none was bigger than Soto’s blast, which gave New York its first AL pennant in 15 years.
Stanton hit a game-tying two-run home run in the sixth inning for the Yankees, who won Game 5 of the American League Championship Series after trailing through the first five innings and never taking the lead until Soto’s heroics. Soto had three hits while teammate Gleyber Torres had two.
Stanton was named ALCS MVP after going 4-for-18 (.222) with four homers and seven RBIs.
In the 10th, Soto hit four consecutive foul balls against Guardians right-hander Hunter Gaddis (1-1) before smashing a 1-2 fastball over the wall in right-center field. It was his second home run in two games and third of the series.
“I was all over it. That’s the only thing I was thinking,” Soto said on the TBS broadcast. “I was saying to myself, ‘You’re all over that guy, you’re all over that guy. He ain’t got anything.’ I just tried to make good contact and I did.”
Four New York relievers held Cleveland scoreless over the final 5 1/3 innings with Luke Weaver (1-0) pitching the last two innings to earn the win.
“We know what we have in this group and we’re going to enjoy it right now, but we know there is much more work to do,” Stanton said. “It’s only uphill from here, and we gotta get it done.”
Bo Naylor doubled home brother Josh Naylor to give the Guardians a lead in the second inning, and Steven Kwan added an RBI single in the fifth. Cleveland right-hander Tanner Bibee held New York scoreless until Stanton hit his two-run homer with two outs in the sixth.
The Guardians finished with the second-best record in the American League but lost in their first appearance in the ALCS since reaching the 2016 World Series.
“I’m so proud,” Guardians first-year manager Stephen Vogt said. “Obviously we’re hurting. What a game to finish it on. This group of guys worked extremely hard from Day 1. We believed, and we still believe we can be better. We can be more. But I couldn’t be more proud of what this group accomplished.”
Torres led off the game with a single but was thrown out at home trying to score from first on Soto’s double.
Cleveland took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Josh Naylor singled with one out and scored on Bo Naylor’s two-out double that came on the 10th pitch of the at-bat against Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodon.
It was the first time a brother drove in a brother in a postseason game since the 2001 AL Division Series when the Oakland Athletics’ Jeremy Giambi brought home Jason Giambi.
The Guardians got to Rodon again in the fifth inning for a 2-0 lead when Kwan’s two-out single knocked in Andres Gimenez, who had doubled.
The Yankees opened the sixth with singles from Torres and Soto before Judge grounded into a double play. Stanton followed by working the count full before crushing a game-tying home run to left-center with a 117.5 mph exit velocity.
After Weaver pitched a perfect ninth inning, he worked around Kyle Manzardo’s one-out single in the 10th, getting Jose Ramirez to line out to center and Lane Thomas to fly out to Soto in right field to end the game.
“We’ve gotten to this stage a few times since I got here and haven’t broken through, so to know we’re going to the dance with a chance to play for a world championship, I can’t imagine doing it with a better group,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who is in his seventh season at the helm of the club and has taken it to the postseason six times.
–Field Level Media
