Yankees fans, Gleyber Torres trolling Josh Naylor put exclamation point on Game 5 win

The New York Yankees avoided what would’ve been a hellacious choke job and have advanced to the ALCS for a date with the Houston Astros. The 5-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday afternoon sealed the deal after Monday night’s rainout.

Now, the Yankees will meet Houston for the third time in the ALCS since 2017. They’re 0-2 in those matchups and are looking for revenge after the 2017 scandal and the 2019 Jose Altuve home run off Aroldis Chapman.

But today … today Yankees fans celebrate. That ALDS brought on a lot of stress, and the Bombers emerged victorious after slugging two long balls off the bats of Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge. Anthony Rizzo added the final RBI on a clutch single.

That’s all it took to put Cleveland to sleep. Turns out, they were already asleep before the game anyway. Manager Terry Francona went ahead with an ill-advised plan to start Aaron Civale when Shane Bieber was on short rest. The right-hander allowed three runs in 1/3 of an inning to begin the game.

Then he didn’t challenge a play early in the game that would’ve been overturned in his favor to give Cleveland a baserunner when they desperately needed them. As for Josh Naylor? 0-for-4 on the day. And he didn’t hear the end of it from the crowd in the Bronx.

Yankees fans trolling Josh Naylor made ALDS Game 5 win that much better

Naylor should’ve known better. He should’ve waited for the big-time trash talk after a victory was secured … or, if he really wanted to be safe, until the series was over. Instead, his solo home run off Gerrit Cole to cut the deficit to 3-2 in Game 4 ended up not helping Cleveland at all, and his .182 average and .546 OPS in this series was fourth-worst among Guardians’ starters!

Hell, even Pedro Martinez warned Naylor during the TBS pregame show. Don’t poke the bear! There was still a game remaining at Yankee Stadium potentially on the table when these two teams were going at it on Sunday.

That was only Part II of the show, believe it or not! Manager Aaron Boone utilized his bullpen for four innings after five great frames from Nestor Cortes. On came Jonathan Loaisiga, Clay Holmes and Wandy Peralta to shut the door.

Peralta got the ninth and got another villain in Myles Straw to ground out to capture the victory. Gleyber Torres hauled in the throw from Isiah Kiner-Falefa for the force at second, and sent a message to Naylor and the Guardians with something they’ll have to live with until the 2023 season.

Good night. Thanks for coming. That’s the Guardians’ eighth straight loss in a win-or-go-home game, which is the second-longest streak in MLB history.

Turns out Naylor didn’t even know his own audience before busting out that celebration against Cole.

Revel in the win/jokes now and enjoy it, because the ALCS begins Wednesday night. The Yankees will be traveling to Houston in a few hours.

If only they had somebody to rock them to sleep to make that plane ride and next morning more relaxing.

Gerrit Cole’s Game 4 performance and Josh Naylor trash talk elevate Game 5 stakes

New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole was every fan after he helped force a Game 5 with his incredible performance on Sunday night.