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CLEVELAND — The New York Yankees signed Gerrit Cole for games like this.

With the Yankees’ 99-win season on the brink, Cole spun seven sparkling innings, propelling New York to a 4-2 win over the upstart Cleveland Guardians on Sunday as the Bombers knotted the American League Division Series at two games apiece.

Starting for the 16th time in his postseason career, Cole gave the Yankees exactly what they needed, not just in staving off elimination but also in saving further wear and tear on a bullpen worn down by injuries.

“He just kept making pitches all night long,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I thought he was just really in command of the moment, and it was obviously a huge start for us and for him. And to get us that deep in the game set us up real nice.”

Cole allowed the Cleveland leadoff hitter to reach base in each of the first four innings, but every time it appeared he might be teetering on the edge of trouble, he was able to dial it up and escape with little to no damage on the scoreboard. He managed to pull off that trick while also keeping his pitch count under control so that he could work deep.

“For most of the night, in order to pitch around somebody, and overall, just stuff was pretty good,” Cole said. “But we just executed a lot of good pitches and mixed well. Well enough to get away with a couple of mistakes.”

One of those mistakes came in the fourth inning, when Guardians designated hitter Josh Naylor led off with a ringing line-drive homer to right center. As he circled the bases, Naylor went into an exaggerated celebratory gesture, rocking his arms back and forth.

If the intent was to put Cole off his game, it didn’t work — and couldn’t have worked, because Cole said he was unaware of Naylor’s antics until after the game.

“Whatever,” Cole said. “It’s cute. I didn’t see it in the moment, and it wouldn’t have bothered me in the moment. It just is kind of funny.”

Nothing could put Cole off his game in Game 4, as he held Cleveland to two runs over seven innings, struck out eight and, perhaps most important of all, threw 110 pitches.

The last of those pitches was a 98 mph fastball that struck out Guardians pinch hitter Will Brennan. As he stalked off the mound, Cole pumped his arms and screamed, the intensity on his face suggesting a person who knew he had done the job he was asked to do.

He had emptied the tank for his team.

“I do that every time I pitch,” Cole said.

The big blow for the Yankees’ offense was struck by emergent postseason hero Harrison Bader, who clubbed a two-run homer off Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill in the second to give New York an early 3-0 advantage.

Bader was acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals at the trade deadline while he was on the injured list with plantar fasciitis in his right foot. By the time he was able to work his way back and begin his Yankees career, the season was dwindling, and he played in just 14 games for New York during the regular season, hitting .217 with no homers.

He’s making up for lost time. Bader’s homer on Sunday was his third of the postseason. Bader, who grew up a Yankees fan, joined quite a list. In the storied history of the franchise, the only other Yankees center fielders to homer at least three times in a single postseason were Bernie Williams (three times) and Mickey Mantle (twice).

“I’m grateful and fortunate for the opportunity,” Bader said. “And every day I wake up, it feels good to be a Yankee. I carry that in the field, carry that in my preparation.”

With Cole reducing the workload of the New York bullpen to six batters, Boone was able to use closer Clay Holmes for three outs in the eighth and lefty Wandy Peralta to finish it off in the ninth. Both hurlers faced the segment of the Guardians’ order with which they best matched up, just as Boone would have scripted it.

“It lined up pretty well for us tonight,” Boone said. “You start looking back, it is like, man, every little out that sets up somebody in a little bit better position moving forward is always big.”

While Holmes’ availability or lack thereof has become a hot topic in the series, before Sunday’s game, Boone said that he could pitch in back-to-back games if he responds well to the first outing. Finding out whether that happened will surely be a topic during Boone’s pregame news conference Monday at Yankee Stadium ahead of Game 5.

Meanwhile, Peralta set down Cleveland in order in the ninth on just seven pitches. While the outing made it three appearances in three days for the veteran lefty, Boone said the efficiency of the outing made it possible that Peralta could be available for the series finale.

And because of Cole’s outing, the rest of the New York bullpen will be fully rested. Jameson Taillon will draw the Game 5 assignment for New York, going against Cleveland righty Aaron Civale.

“There is definitely going to be some added adrenaline and stuff when you step foot in Yankee Stadium,” Taillon said. “I will keep my day as normal as possible.”

While the Yankees’ beleaguered bullpen appears to be in good shape for the finale, so too will be Cleveland’s bullpen after manager Terry Francona avoided using any of his big three relievers — Emmanuel Clase, James Karinchak and Trevor Stephan — during the two games in Cleveland.

In other words, it’s going to be all hands on deck as the $68 million Guardians try to knock off the $246 million Yankees.

“If you would have told me back in March we just signed up to play Game 5 in New York, to go to the ALCS,” Francona said, “I would have jogged to New York. I mean, this is … I’m excited.”

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Stanton won’t blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

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Stanton won't blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.

Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.

“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”

Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”

He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.

“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”

While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.

Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells were among the Yankees who used torpedo bats during their season-opening sweep of the Brewers.

Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.

Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.

“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”

Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.

“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.

“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”

As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.

“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”

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Rangers’ Eovaldi gets season’s 1st complete game

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Rangers' Eovaldi gets season's 1st complete game

CINCINNATI — Nathan Eovaldi pitched a four-hitter for the majors’ first complete game of the season, and the Texas Rangers blanked the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 on Tuesday night.

Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.

It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.

“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”

In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.

“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”

The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.

“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”

Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.

“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”

Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.

The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: USC flips Ducks’ Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

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Source: USC flips Ducks' Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.

Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.

Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).

The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.

Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.

Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.

Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.

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