(The Sports Xchange) – Highlights of Wednesday’s Major League Baseball playoff games:
Yankees 5, Indians 2
Didi Gregorius hit two home runs and drove in three runs, and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians 5-2 in the deciding Game Five of their American League Division Series at Progressive Field.
After losing the first two games of the series, the Yankees won three in a row, outscoring the Indians 13-5 against a Cleveland team that had not lost three straight since July 30-Aug. 1.
New York advances to the American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros. Game One will be played in Houston on Friday.
Yankees starter CC Sabathia pitched four strong innings before faltering in the fifth. He struck out nine and was charged with two runs in 4 1/3 innings.
David Robertson (1-0) pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings to get the win and Aroldis Chapman shut out Cleveland in the last two innings to pick up his second save of the series.
Gregorius went 3-for-4, and Brett Gardner added three hits and an RBI for New York.
Cleveland starter Corey Kluber (0-1) lasted only 3 2/3 innings, giving up three runs and three hits and two walks.
Nationals 5, Cubs 0
Stephen Strasburg threw seven scoreless innings and struck out 12 and Michael A. Taylor hit an eighth-inning grand slam to draw Washington even at two-games apiece with a win over Chicago in the National League Division Series.
The fifth and deciding game will be played in Washington on Thursday with the winner advancing to the NL Championship Series to face the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Strasburg shut down the Cubs a day after he continued to experience flu-like symptoms that began last week.
The right-hander was not expected to start for the Nationals but after reporting to Wrigley Field feeling better, he held the Cubs to three hits and two walks.
With the Nationals clinging to a 1-0 lead in the eighth, Taylor blew the game open with the first post-season grand slam in Nationals franchise history off Cubs closer Wade Davis.
Davis entered the game with two outs in the inning after reliever Carl Edwards, Jr walked two hitters to load the bases.
