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Morgan Murphy’s four goals lead Crestwood to 8th straight field hockey win

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Dallas cross country teams remain atop Wyoming Valley Conference

<p>CLEVELAND &#8212; They stood in different spots of a mostly silent visitors&#8217; clubhouse here Friday night after as crushing a loss as is imaginable.</p><p>To a man, players repeated a form of the same declaration.</p><p>We can do this. For some, even we will do this.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve won three games in a row before,&#8221; David Robertson said.</p><p>Somehow, against the best the American League had to offer, the Yankees did.</p><p>Sparked by two Didi Gregorius homers off Corey Kluber, nine strikeouts from sage left-hander CC Sabathia and 4 2/3 brilliant innings by a bullpen that was the gold standard of the American League, the Yankees completed their comeback from an 0-2 series hole, defeating the Indians, 5-2, in Game 5 of the ALDS in front of 37,802 disappointed fans at Progressive Field.</p><p>The Yankees added two runs in the ninth off closer Cody Allen. Brett Gardner&#8217;s single on a 3-and-2 pitch drove Aaron Hicks, and Todd Frazier scored after the throw short-hopped shortstop Francisco Lindor and bounced away.</p><p>The Yankees, who earned their first trip to the ALCS since 2012, face the Astros in Game 1 Friday night in Houston.</p><p>Kluber lasted fewer than four innings in exactly one of his 29 starts this regular season, in which he went 18-4 with a 2.25 ERA. He lasted 2 2/3 innings of Game 2 and just 3 2/3 in Game 5.</p><p>Gregorius, who set a franchise record for homers by a shortstop with 25 this season, quickly deflated the crowd with a first-inning solo homer. He did further damage to their collective attitude with a two-run blast in the third that made it 3-0.</p><p>Gregorius joined Yogi Berra (Game 7 of the 1956 World Series) and Jason Giambi (Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS) as the only Yankees to hit two home runs in an elimination game.</p><p>Sabathia, the 37-year-old left-hander, was perfect through three and retired 13 of the first 14 he faced. He struck out six of his first nine batters and had a no-hitter through three innings. But after four straight singles with one out in the fifth made it 3-2, Joe Girardi brought on Robertson. The righty got an inning-ending, 6-6-3 double-play ball off the bat of Francisco Lindor, whose grand slam turned Game 2 around.</p><p>Robertson struck out two in 2 2/3 hitless innings, turning things over to Aroldis Chapman. The closer, who posted a 0.61 ERA over his last 14 appearances of the regular season, struck out four over the final two innings for the save.</p><p>Brett Gardner attempted to bunt Kluber&#8217;s first pitch of the game, a 94-mph fastball, toward first but it went straight to Carlos Santana, who recorded the out. Aaron Judge worked the count full before striking out swinging on a curveball. Gregorius stunned the roaring crowd by crushing a 1-and-2 fastball to right, improving to 2-for-14 in the series. Kluber struck out Sanchez, but the night&#8217;s most meaningful blow had been struck. The Yankees again had stripped Kluber, early on, of his unhittable veneer.</p><p>Given a lead, Sabathia did his job in keeping the crowd out of it. He struck out Lindor on a slider, and did the same to Jason Kipnis. Sabathia got Jose Ramirez to ground to third to end the 14-pitch inning.</p><p>An opening-inning script could not have been written any better from the Yankees&#8217; perspective.</p><p>Gardner got things started in the third with a leadoff single and Judge struck out, dropping to 1-for-17 with 14 strikeouts. Gregorius launched a curveball into nearly the same spot he hit the first-inning fastball, making it 3-0.</p><p>Sabathia provided another shutdown inning, striking out two and catching a popped-up bunt by Robert Perez. Sabathia charged off the mound to make the catch, his bulky right knee taking out a sizeable divot between the mound and plate as he made the catch.</p><p>Andrew Miller relieved Kluber after he walked Jacoby Ellsbury with two outs in the fourth, and he struck out Todd Frazier.</p><p>Lindor led off the bottom half with a single and went to second on Ramirez&#8217;s grounder to second. Sabathia struck out Edwin Encarnacion for the third out. He was back in the lineup for the first time since spraining his right ankle in Game 2.</p><p>Sabathia opened the fifth with his ninth strikeout but the string of hits followed. After Giovanny Urshela poked one to right to make it 3-2, Girardi was out of the dugout quickly, bringing on Robertson to face Lindor. Robertson got ahead 0-and-1 before Lindor hit into a 6-6-3 inning-ending double play.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">New York Yankees relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman hugs catcher Gary Sanchez after the Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians 5-2 in Game 5 of a baseball American League Division Series, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017, in Cleveland. The Yankees advanced to the ALCS. (AP Photo/David Dermer)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_Yankees-ALDS-Win.jpg</photo0><caption0>New York Yankees relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman hugs catcher Gary Sanchez after the Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians 5-2 in Game 5 of a baseball American League Division Series, Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017, in Cleveland. The Yankees advanced to the ALCS. (AP Photo/David Dermer)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Erik Boland</p><p>Newsday</p></bylineMeta></div>

Didi Gregorius’ two HRs, three RBIs win ALDS for Yankees, defeat Indians, 5-2