NEW YORK — Guardians manager Terry Francona said leading up to Wednesday’s Game 5 of the American League Division Series that he told Aaron Civale to just pitch his game and not worry if he saw the bullpen warming up behind him early in his start in a winner-take-all game at Yankee Stadium. Turns out Civale barely had much of a chance to look over his shoulder, other than watching Giancarlo Stanton’s three-run homer clear the fence.
No sooner had Stanton crossed home plate after his first-inning drive than Sam Hentges began warming with urgency in the visitors’ bullpen beyond left-center field. After Josh Donaldson’s ensuing infield single, Civale was out.
Civale retired just one of his five batters — ironically, on an Aaron Judge strikeout. He became the eighth pitcher to record one or no outs in a winner-take-all postseason start, and the first since Atlanta’s Mike Foltynewicz in Game 5 of the Braves’ 2019 NL Division Series loss to the Cardinals. Three of the seven teams before Cleveland on Tuesday went on to win their game after the quick hook.
“Just wasn’t commanding right, more balls than strikes,” Francona told TBS between innings. “Elevated a ball to Stanton, and they’re strong enough to hit the ball out the other way. In a normal game, you can let him get his footing. Not sure we can do that today.”
Though Civale had been one of the Guardians’ most effective starters in September following his return from forearm soreness, he was out of sorts from the get-go, starting with a four-pitch walk to Gleyber Torres as he struggled to locate his cutter. Judge’s strikeout came on a breaking ball over the plate, but it nearly got Civale back into form. He flipped a couple more breaking balls for strikes to put Anthony Rizzo in a 2-2 count but couldn’t finish him off, eventually hitting him with a cutter.
As Hentges stretched in the bullpen, Civale elevated a 2-0 cutter on the outside edge of the plate to Stanton, who crushed it at 107.5 miles per hour on a line to right-center.
Francona stuck with Civale as his starter after Monday’s rainout, opting not to consider ace Shane Bieber on three days’ rest.
“It’s not philosophically. We’ve done it before,” Francona said of using Bieber on short rest. “We just feel like it’s the right thing to do for him and us. Now he’s going to go out to the bullpen, and if we empty our bullpen, he’s out there. But we’re not sending him out there as a weapon. …
“It’s not because he can’t pitch, just … He’s been through a lot. He had an injury last year, and he’s had a remarkable year, but it’s not been probably as easy as he’s made it look.”