Never Seen This Before: Yankees Beat Cleveland Guardians

After losing 2 out of 3 in Baltimore, then winning 2 out of 3 in Detroit, and having many good reasons to have taken all 6, and possibly lucky they didn't lose all 6, the Yankees came home last night, beginning a homestand with a 3-game series against the Cleveland Guardians.

This is a charter franchise in the American League, known as the Cleveland Blues in 1901, the Cleveland Bronchos in 1902, the Cleveland Naps in honor of legendary 2nd baseman and manager Napoleon Lajoie from 1903 to 1914, and the Cleveland Indians from 1915 until 2021, when they finally admitted that having a Native American team name really was not good.

Some people were hoping that the team would take the name of the Cleveland franchise in the National League from 1889 to 1899, the Cleveland Spiders. But that would have reminded people of why that team no longer exists: The dreadful 1899 season, when, sabotaged by their own owners, the team had the worst record in the history of baseball, 20-134.

So now, they are the Guardians. This led to a joke: In baseball, you never know when you're going to see something you've never seen before. Last night, we saw something we've never seen before: The Yankees played the Cleveland Guardians. (It didn't even happen in Spring Training, since the Yankees train in Florida, and the Guardians train in Arizona, as they have done since 2009, and previously from 1947 to 1992.)

Jameson Taillon started for the Yanks, and he went 5 innings, allowing 1 run on 7 hits. Michael King followed this with 3 scoreless innings, allowing just 1 hit. And Aroldis Chapman pitched the 9th, and completed a night on which the Yankee pitchers got 15 strikeouts and no walks. Magnificent. 

But, as we have seen, you got to score. Aaron Judge ensured the Yankees would do just that, hitting a 2-run home run in the 3rd inning, and a solo home run in the 5th. Judge also got Taillon out of his one real jam, throwing a runner out at the plate in the 4th. Mixed in was an RBI single in the 4th by Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

Yankees 4, Guardians 1. WP: Taillon (1-1). SV: Chapman (4). LP: Eli Morgan (1-1).

The series continues this afternoon. Nestor Cortes starts against Kirk McCarty.