NEW YORK — — Aaron Judge hit a two-run drive at Monument Park for his first home run of the postseason, and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the AL Championship Series.

Judge, who entered the playoffs with just one RBI, hit a sacrifice fly in a two-run second to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. With New York ahead 4-2 in the seventh, the likely AL MVP drove out a fastball to the letters Hunter Gaddis 400 feet to center for his 14th career postseason home run.

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

Winner Clay Holmes, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings. José Ramírez hit a home run in the ninth inning off Luke Weaver, just the second earned run. New York’s bullpen has allowed more than 23 1/3 innings in six postseason games.

After a day off, Game 3 is Thursday in Cleveland. The Yankees lead the ALCS for the first time since 2009 with a 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels.

New York’s Gleyber Torres reached base for the fifth time in the playoffs and had three singles. Anthony Rizzo had two hits and is 3 for 7 in two games since returning from a pair of broken fingers that forced him to miss the Division Series.

Rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio and right fielder Will Brennan committed run-scoring errors for the Guardians.

Rocchio dropped Judge’s pop-up in the first, allowing Torres to score. After Cleveland closed to 3-2, Brennan bobbled the ball as he attempted a barehanded pickup of Rizzo’s sixth-inning double, which hit off the low wall along the right-field line. Anthony Volpe, who had been first, sprinted home.

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

Alex Verdugo had an RBI double into opposite field in the second two-run run, which glanced off a shoulder of left-field umpire Vic Carapazza and went down the line.

Cleveland closed to 3-2 in the fifth when Josh Naylor hit a sacrifice fly and, after Holmes was relieved with the bases loaded, Will Brennan grounded in a runscoring force out.

Cleveland went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners.

Cole escaped two-on, one-out trouble in the third and then a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth when pinch-hitter David Fry committed an error and Rocchio took a knuckle curve at the top of the strike zone for a third strike called in a nine-pitch at-bat.

Holmes struck out Austin Hedges on a low sinker to leave the bases loaded in the fifth.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb was removed from the roster due to a lower back strain he suffered in the opener and was 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 Division Series Game 3, squandering a 2–0 lead before New York won 3–2. This year, he faced the Guardians once, pitching five scoreless innings before allowing a pair of runs (one unearned) in the sixth inning of a 3-2 victory.

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