AL Division Series top plays: Yankees beat Guardians, advance to ALCS

After a lengthy rain delay Monday night, the Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees finally played Game 5 of the American League Division Series on Tuesday, with New York winning 5-1 and taking the series 3-2. 

The Yankees will play the Houston Astros on Wednesday in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.

Here are the top plays!

Cleveland Guardians at New York Yankees

Stanton Smash

Nestor Cortes started for the Yankees while Aaron Civale took the bump for the Guardians.

The Yankees take a quick 3-0 lead as Giancarlo Stanton took Civale the opposite way for a three-run home run. 

Civale's day is done

After giving up a base hit to Josh Donaldson following Stanton's home run, Terry Francona took the ball from Civale, calling in lefty Sam Hentges. Civale pitched just a third of an inning, allowing three runs on a hit, a walk, and a hit by pitch.

Judge gets in on the action

The home run king for the 2022 season hit his second homer of the ALDS. Aaron Judge extended the Yankees' lead to 4-0 with his solo jack to right field. 

Scary collision

Three Yankees players converged quickly while chasing a fly ball in shallow left field, resulting in a collision that injured left fielder Aaron Hicks and resulted in a base hit for Steven Kwan.

Hicks had to be taken out of the game and Marwin Gonzalez took his spot in left field. 

Guardians get on the board

The collision involving Hicks was followed by a walk to load the bases for the Guardians' best hitter, Jose Ramirez. The All-Star lined one foul down the left field line that might have been a home run to tie the game if it stayed fair.

Ramirez ended up hitting a sac fly later in the at-bat to make it 4-1 Yankees in the fourth. 

Guardians might regret this

Andrés Giménez hit a bouncy grounder to first base with two outs in the fourth. Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo had to make a quick play with the ball due to Giménez's speed and appeared to beat him to the bag to end the inning. 

However, a replay later showed that Giménez's slide beat Rizzo to first base. But it didn't matter because the Guardians, who went 0-for-2 in challenges in Game 4, opted not to challenge the call. 

Rizzo rings one in

The Yankees added another run in the fifth inning when Anthony Rizzo hit a line drive into right to score Gleyber Torres and extend their lead to 5-1.

Jonathan Loaisiga throws two scoreless innings

Loaisiga took over for Cortes to begin the sixth inning. After giving up two hits to begin the inning, Loaisiga stranded both runners and went on to pitch a scoreless seventh. New York led 5-1 midway through the seventh and would go on to win by that score.