Guardians eliminated from postseason after Game 5 loss to Yankees

CLEVELAND — Resilience was a trademark of the Guardians all year long, but one more never-say-die display was too much to ask for the young group of overachievers. On the heels of a crushing defeat in Game 4 of the ALCS, Cleveland suffered another one Saturday night at Progressive Field in Game 5, as Juan Soto hit a three-run homer off Hunter Gaddis in the 10th inning to power the Yankees to a 5-2 victory. It was a loss that eliminated the Guardians from the postseason, but, in retrospect, it's hard to view the season as anything but a success. "I'm so proud," an emotional manager Stephen Vogt said of his Central Division championship team. "Obviously, we're hurting. What a game to finish it on. This group of guys worked extremely hard from Day 1. We believed, and we still believe we can be better. We can be more. "But I couldn't be more proud of what this group accomplished. I can't thank the guys enough for their hard work. We just didn't get quite as far as we wanted to." "I know a lot of people didn't think we were going to do a lot and I don't think any of us bought into the media," Steven Kwan said. "We lean on each other, lead on our leadership, our veterans. I think it took us really far, so I'm really proud of us for that." Soto fouled off four straight pitches with the count at 1-1 before connecting to center field to send the Guardians packing. He wouldn't have even been at the plate had shortstop Brayan Rocchio not committed an error on a double-play ball two batters earlier. Second baseman Andres Gimenez fielded a grounder from Alex Verdugo and pitched to Rocchio, who tried to turn two before securing the ball, leaving two on for Soto after Gaddis struck out Gleyber Torres. "I didn't see it. It just looked like it just tipped off the top of his glove," Vogt said. Pitching on short rest worked out well for a while for Tanner Bibee, who was available due to logging only 1 1/3 innings in a Game 2 loss at Yankee Stadium. After emerging from a shaky opening inning unscathed, the right-hander locked in and retired 10 straight until a leadoff single from Anthony Volpe in the fifth. Up 2-0 in the sixth, Bibee allowed consecutive singles to Torres and Soto, but got the dangerous Aaron Judge to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play, bringing another potent weapon to the plate in Giancarlo Stanton. Bibee got ahead 0-2 but couldn't put away New York's slugger, who blasted a 3-2 pitch an estimated 446 feet into the left field bleachers to tie the game at 2 with his fourth ALCS homer. "I think we had the right pitch," Bibee said with tears in his eyes. "I think (catcher) Bo (Naylor) got it right. I just don't think I executed it very well, so, just a bad time to hang a pitch. "There's a lot of stuff going on right now. I don't really know how to process it. That's why I'm so emotional." "Tanner stepped up and was the guy today," Vogt said. "He was the No. 1 today. Short rest, gave us 5 2/3 (innings) of excellent, excellent pitching — one mistake, and it got hit." It was the second straight game that Vogt chose not to walk Stanton and he paid for it again. "Tanner was dialed. Tanner had struck him out twice. He had him on the ropes," Vogt said of the decision. "I trust Tanner on him. The way he was throwing the ball, you give me 100 more times, I'm not putting him on right there." It was the fourth homer of the series for Stanton, who has hit eight career homers in the postseason — all of them coming against Cleveland. He was named ALCS MVP. Stanton, Soto and Judge combined for nine homers and 19 RBIs during the series, while the Guardians hit five homers and had 20 RBIs as a team. Carlos Rodon shut down the Guardians in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium — one run on three hits with nine strikeouts over six innings — but it was a different story this time around. The Naylor brothers helped Cleveland score first for the first time in the series, when Josh reached on a slow roller down the third-base line in the second and Bo drove him in by lining a pitch into the right-field corner for a two-out double at the end of a 10-pitch at-bat. The 1-0 advantage stood until the fifth, when Gimenez shot a double into the left-field corner and scored two batters later on Kwan's two-out single that extended his club-record streak of reaching base in the postseason to 16 games. Though they only won once and were outscored 29-20, it felt like the Guardians were in every game of the series. "I think that's what makes it hurt more," Kwan said. "If we're getting our brains beat off of us, it is what it is, they're just a better team, but because we were close in all those games, I think that's what makes it sting a little more." "Every emotion, fun, agonizing, everywhere in between," Vogt said of the ALCS. "You feel like you played a very good series and walk out of here not winning it. Any one of those games could have gone either way. Just didn't go our way. It was an exciting series to watch. Great games throughout. Credit to them, they're a phenomenal team, and they've earned their way there." Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.