NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge sent the ball flying toward Monument Park and Gleyber Torres landed at first base.

“That was disrespect from Gleyber, man,” Judge said with a smile. “He’s seen me do 58 of these things this year.”

Judge’s first home run of the postseason broke the tension, a two-run drive in the seventh inning that helped the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Tuesday night and take a 2-0 lead in the AL Championship Series .

“I’m a little disappointed in Gleyber because I don’t know Judges Pop there,” Anthony Rizzo said. “We really annoyed him about it. It’s a big change for Judgey.”

Judge, who entered the playoffs with just one RBI, hit a sacrifice fly in second that gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead – after Cleveland intentionally walked Juan Soto to load the bases.

“You want to try to get double-play ball,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “You want to try to get two outs with one pitch.”

Judge, who led the major leagues with 58 home runs and 144 RBIs, was understanding.

“I would probably go with him too,” he said.

As New York took a 4-2 lead in the seventh, the likely AL MVP drove in one Fastball on the letters from Hunter Gaddis 414 feet from center for his 14th home run of the season.

“It was a big step to give us that cushion, so to speak,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “The bank was pretty upset when that happened.”

The judge also appeared good-natured about Torres’ decision to join.

“On these windy, cool nights, you never know what the ball will do when you hit it in the middle here,” he said. “But the ghosts moved out of there to Monument Park, that’s for sure.”

In a duel of off-night aces, Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee got just four outs in the shortest start of his pro career and an erratic Gerrit Cole was chased after four walks in 4 1/3 innings.

“I just gotta do better, I gotta do better,” the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner said.

Winner Clay Holmes, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle combined to pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings.

José Ramírez hit a ninth-inning home run off Luke Weaver, just the second earned run allowed by the New York bullpen in six postseason games over 23 1/3 innings.

After a day off, Game 3 will take place in Cleveland on Thursday. The Yankees lead the ALCS 2-0 for the first time since 2009 against the Los Angeles Angels.

Torres reached base for the fifth time in the playoffs and had three hits. Rizzo had two hits and is 3-for-7 in two games since returning from a broken finger that caused him to miss the Division Series.

Rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio and right fielder Will Brennan made run-scoring errors for the guards. Rocchio dropped Judge’s popup in the first inning, allowing Torres to score.

“No excuse, I have to do this play,” Rocchio said through an interpreter. “I thought I was under the ball, and at the last moment I gravitated toward second base.”

After Cleveland got within 3-2, Brennan caused the ball to wobble as he tried to catch Rizzo’s double with his bare hands in the sixth inning, which bounced off the low wall along the right field line. Anthony Volpe, who went first, sprinted home.

Steven Kwan extended his record postseason streak in Cleveland to 12 games.

Alex Verdugo had an opposite-field RBI double in the second that bounced off left field umpire Vic Carapazza’s shoulder and went over the line.

Cole escaped a two-on-one-out problem in the third and a bases-loaded one-out jam in the fourth when pinch-hitter David Fry fouled out and Rocchio made an ankle turn at the top of the strike zone referred to as the third strike in a nine-pitch at bat.

Cleveland cut its deficit to 3-2 in the fifth when Josh Naylor hit a sacrifice fly and Will Brennan grounded into a run-scoring forceout after Holmes relieved with the bases loaded. Holmes struck out Austin Hedges with a low sinker to leave the bases loaded.

“They made a little push there and we were able to stop it,” Holmes said.

Cleveland went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners stranded. The Guardians are 1 to 11 RISP in the series.

“We’re just one shot away from taking the lead in this game,” Vogt said. “We’re one shot away from being right back in it. This is us. We don’t give up. We just have to be ourselves.”

TRAINER ROOM

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb was removed from the roster due to a lower back strain suffered in the opener and replaced by RHP Ben Lively.

NEXT

Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt starts Thursday in Cleveland. He allowed two runs and four hits over 4 2/3 innings in Game 3 of the Division Series, blowing a 2-0 lead before New York won 3-2. He made one appearance against the Guardians that year and pitched five scoreless innings before allowing two runs in the sixth inning – one unearned – in a 3-2 win. Cleveland wouldn’t commit to a starter, but LHP Matthew Boyd is a possibility. Bibee’s quick exit could allow him to start on a short rest instead of Game 6.

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