CNN
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Juan Soto hit his first home run of the postseason and Carlos Rodón rebounded with nine strikeouts in six strong innings as the New York Yankees defeated the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) on Monday night.

Playing in front of a sellout crowd of 47,264 at Yankee Stadium, Soto launched a solo shot off Guardians pitcher Alex Cobb in the bottom of the third to spark a three-run rally for New York.

After the blast, Cobb – making his first postseason start since 2013 – got two outs but walked Yankees sluggers Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Volpe before being removed from the game.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt turned to rookie reliever Joey Cantillo, who was struggling with his command. Cantillo threw an AL postseason record four wild pitches, two of which allowed runs to be scored, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

“That’s what good teams do,” Soto said of the team’s decisive third inning. “It’s not about one man, it’s about the entire lineup and we’ve shown that we can put pressure on these guys.

“We take pitches and make our walks, bring guys over, load bases, let those guys make wild pitches and so on. “At the end of the day, it’s a team effort and we did it today.”

On the mound, Rodón rebounded from a tough outing in the AL Division Series with a dominant performance, securing the first postseason win of his career.

He struck out 11 Guardians players at one point and ultimately finished the game with nine Ks over six innings, allowing just one run on Brayan Rocchio’s solo home run in the sixth inning. Rodon’s start was crucial, retiring 13 of the last 15 batters he faced.

In Game 2 of the ALDS series against the Kansas City Royals earlier this postseason, Rodón got off to a dominant start but faltered in the fourth inning, allowing four runs before being retired.

“I had it under control most of the night,” Rodón said Monday about controlling his emotions. “A few days ago I saw Gerrit (Cole) pitching the fourth game in Kansas City and I was making mental notes about how he went out there and how he went about it and I just wanted it that way Do the same thing and I thought I did a good job tonight.”

Stanton increased New York’s cushion in the seventh inning with a solo shot to left field, extending the Yankees’ lead to 5-1.

Cleveland threatened to make the game a game in the top of the eighth quarter by hitting three straight singles off Yankees reliever Tim Hill. Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan’s grounder to left field brought in a run and cut the deficit to 5-2, but that was more than Cleveland could accomplish.

With the decisive run at the plate, Yankees manager Aaron Boone turned to closer Luke Weaver for the final five outs. Weaver struck out pinch-hitter Will Brennan and grounded out Guardians superstar third baseman José Ramírez, ending the threat.

After allowing a walk to start the ninth inning, Weaver struck out the next three batters, earning his fourth save of the postseason and the Yankees’ victory.

Game 2 of the series is scheduled for Tuesday at Yankee Stadium: Cleveland will send star Tanner Bibee to the mound to try to tie the series, while the Yankees will counter with star pitcher Gerrit Cole.

Since the ALCS became a best-of-seven format, teams that won Game 1 have won the series 23 of 38 times (approximately 60.5%), including 10 of the last 13 (nearly 77%).