Yankees’ Harrison Bader didn’t see the ball off the bat on RBI double in 10th

Quite simply, Harrison Bader didn’t see the ball off the bat.

And as a result, Bader   looked lost on Josh Naylor’s RBI double in the 10th inning Friday. It went over his head and provided a two-run cushion in the Guardians’ 4-2 victory over the Yankees in ALDS Game 2 at the Stadium.

“Honestly, I didn’t see it [because] of the sun,” said Bader, who is considered among the better defensive centerfielders in the game.  “You prepare before every pitch [and say to yourself], ‘if the ball’s hit over here, you’ll go here.’ But literally the one spot is that one, the low line drive to my left. It got caught up in it [the sun].”

Bader said it was a helpless feeling.

“It’s pretty bad,” he said. “But there’s nothing you do can except just react accordingly and try to get the ball in as quickly as possible. Just a tough read. You just shake it off. I got beat, no doubt. Hopefully next time if we do have a day game at some point, there’s a cloud in the sky. If not, I’ll be ready. Figure something out.”

Speaking of shaking it off . . .

Giancarlo Stanton doesn’t just resemble Aaron Judge in terms of size. The two massive sluggers also are similar in that neither has ever been ejected and neither typically says or reacts much when it comes to balls and strikes.

But Stanton did in the first inning after taking a 3-and-1 pitch that clearly was low and away but was called a strike by Jeremie Rehak. Stanton began to take off for first, reacted to the call by putting both arms out in exasperation — and drilled the next pitch into the rightfield seats for his 10th home run in his 20th career postseason game. 

“You have to lock back in. It doesn’t matter what just happened,” said Stanton, who gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead. “If I stayed worried about that, I wouldn’t have been able to hit that homer. It angered me a bit, but you still have to be locked in for what’s next.” 

Cleveland rocks Judge

Judge struck out four times and went 0-for-5, dropping him to 0-for-8 with seven strikeouts in the series. In three postseason series against Cleveland (2017 ALDS, 2020 Wild Card Series, 2022 ALDS), he is 2-for-37 with 27 strikeouts.

Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.