CNN
—

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 evening.

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

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

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

“That’s what good teams do,” Soto said of the team’s crucial third inning. “It’s not about one guy, it’s about the whole line-up and we showed that we put pressure on those guys.

“Taking pitches and getting our walks, getting guys, getting the bases loaded, getting those guys to make wild pitches and stuff like that. At the end of the day, it’s a team effort and we made it today.”

On the mound, Rodón bounced back from a tough outing in the AL Division Series with a dominant performance for the first postseason victory of his career.

He retired 11 Guardians players in a row at one point and ultimately finished with nine Ks over six innings, allowing just one run on Brayan Rocchio’s solo homer in the sixth. 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 fell apart in the fourth inning, allowing four runs before being pulled.

“I had it under control most of the night,” Rodón said Monday about keeping his emotions in check. “A few days ago I saw Gerrit (Cole) throw Game 4 in Kansas City, and mentally I was making notes about how he went there and did that, and I just wanted to talk about it a little bit. the same way and I thought I did a good job with that tonight.

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

Cleveland threatened to make it a game in the top of the eighth inning by hitting three consecutive singles off Yankees reliever Tim Hill. Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan’s grounder to left field produced a run to cut the deficit to 5-2, but that was as close as Cleveland could get.

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

After allowing a walk in the top of the ninth inning, Weaver struck out the next three batters, securing 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 top prospect Tanner Bibee to the mound to try to tie the series, while the Yankees will counter with star pitcher Gerrit Cole.

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