Cleveland Indians: Trevor Bauer shines in Game 1 victory

The Cleveland Indians opened the 2017 ALDS with a 4-0 victory over the New York Yankees thanks to a dominant outing by Trevor Bauer.

Cleveland Indians fans had a range of emotions when Trevor Bauer was announced as the ALDS Game 1 starter against the New York Yankees. But Bauer just put his head down and went to work.

The young pitcher who was given up on by the Arizona Diamondbacks had himself an amazing night, going 6.2 innings of scoreless baseball, striking out eight batters and allowing just two hits.

He made Terry Francona look like a genius and now sets up his team with a 1-0 series lead with Corey Kluber on the mound in Game 2.

While Bauer was shutting it down on the mound, Jay Bruce was the hero on offense. Bruce drove in three runs and picked up two of the offense’s five hits in a game when several scoring opportunities were squandered. If not for Bruce, this game would have been much more stressful.

The stress did build late in the game when Andrew Miller walked two batters in the top of the eighth, but Cody Allen was ready to come in and get the final four outs of the game.

The recipe of Kluber-Miller-Allen is one fans are familiar with, so just swap out Kluber for Bauer and you see why Francona is such a genius.

Jason Kipnis also made his manager look smart with one of the more surprising defensive plays of the season.

Just as Indians fans expected several years ago, Kipnis is in the outfield alongside Lonnie Chisenhall making great plays in the postseason. Oh how things change in just a few short years.

Something that doesn’t change is Aaron Judge‘s love for strikeouts, as he picked up four on the night. He was one of five Yankees hitters with at least two strikeouts, but he is the only one who dons the golden sombrero.

Next: 2017 ALDS hype material

Be sure to get some sleep because these two teams are back at it Friday at the convenient time of 5:08. So be sure to sprint out of work if you’re on that 9-5 grind and get somewhere to watch the game. Corey Kluber will be on the mound trying to put this team up 2-0. Good luck, New York.