Indians grab commanding lead with 13th-inning win against Yankees

Yan Gomes singled home Austin Jackson from second base with none out in the 13th inning as the Cleveland Indians rallied from five runs down to stun the visiting New York Yankees 9-8 Friday and snatch a 2-0 lead in the AL Division Series.

Jackson drew a leadoff walk in the 13th from Dellin Betances and stole second. Gomes went to a full count before pulling his bouncer just inside the third-base bag, easily scoring Jackson. The Indians poured out of their dugout to mob Gomes, who ended the 5-hour, 8-minute thriller.

“We just were supposed to win,” said Indians outfielder Jay Bruce, who hit a game-tying homer in the eighth. “No words, honestly. I’m speechless.”

The Indians posted their biggest comeback win in postseason history, overcoming an 8-3 deficit, a terrible start by ace Corey Kluber and a potentially serious injury to slugger Edwin Encarnacion.

Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the sixth to rally Cleveland, right after a close call on a hit by pitch that the Yankees didn’t challenge.

New York had its chances late, but the Yankees stranded the go-ahead run at third in the ninth and 10th - and had pinch-runner Ronald Torreyes picked off second in the 11th by Gomes from the behind the plate.

Cleveland will try for a sweep in Game 3 Sunday at Yankee Stadium. Carlos Carrasco is set to start for the Indians against Masahiro Tanaka.

The Yankees lost consecutive games for the first time since they were swept at home in a three-game series by the Indians from Aug. 28-30. Now, they need to sweep three in a row from Cleveland.

Down 8-3, facing New York’s vaunted bullpen, the Indians came back.

New York starter C.C. Sabathia was lifted with one on and one out in the sixth for Chad Green, another one of the Yankees’ flame-throwers who got an out before Gomes doubled. Green came inside and Lonnie Chisenhall was awarded first by plate umpire Dan Iassogna on a hit by pitch. TV replays showed the ball slightly change direction - it appeared to hit the knob of Chisenhall’s bat.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said there wasn’t enough evidence within 30 seconds to justify a challenge. He said the team later saw a slow-motion replay suggesting he should’ve contested it.

Lindor then stepped in and hit a towering shot off the inside of the right-field foul pole to make it 8-7, triggering a seismic celebration.

Bruce, who has done everything since coming over in an August trade, led off the eighth with his homer to left off reliever David Robertson, who pitched 31/3 scoreless innings and earned the win in the wild-card game against Minnesota.

Five innings later, the Indians finally broke the tie. They matched the longest postseason game in Cleveland history - Tony Pena’s homer in the 13th beat Boston in Game 1 of the 1995 ALDS.

ASTROS 8, RED SOX 2

Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and the high-powered Astros led the majors in runs, hits and batting average. Now that it’s playoff time, Houston is still hammering away.

Correa homered , doubled and drove in four runs, Altuve got two more hits and the Astros battered the Boston Red Sox 8-2 Friday to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the AL Division Series.

George Springer also homered to back Dallas Keuchel in Houston’s second straight romp by the exact same score.

“One through nine, everybody can do damage, everybody can go deep,” Correa said. “That’s the good thing about our lineup, there’s no holes in our lineup, and we feel very confident no matter if we went 0 for 4 the day before or if we went 4 for 4.”

The Astros will go for a sweep in the best-of-five matchup Sunday at Fenway Park, a year after Boston was swept in the ALDS by Cleveland.

“We couldn’t really script it any better,” Keuchel said.

If the Red Sox lose on Sunday, they will have finished eight of their past nine seasons without a single playoff victory.

The shining exception, of course, was 2013, when Boston won the World Series.

The Red Sox had hoped to torment Houston’s pitchers with walks, singles and doubles, then dash aggressively around the bases. But it isn’t working