Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Sloppy play leaves the Cleveland Guardians falling behind big in the American League Championship Series.

Cleveland's rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio and right fielder Will Brennan made costly errors and allowed runs to score on Tuesday night as the New York Yankees beat the Guardians 6-3 and 2-0 in the best-of-seven series took the lead.

The Guardians are playing in their sixth ALCS and have fallen from a two-game deficit for the first time as the series shifts to Cleveland for Game 3 on Thursday night after an off day.

Rocchio, who made 12 errors in 462 chances during the regular season, dropped a pop-up off slugger Aaron Judge's bat in the first inning, scoring New York's first run. With runners on second and third, Rocchio took several steps to the right side of the infield and was on the right side of second when Judge's pop-up bounced off the webbing of his glove, allowing Gleyber Torres to score , giving Cleveland an early lead in the hole.

“Obviously I couldn’t catch it,” Rocchio said through a translator. “No excuse, I have to make that play, but I think I was in the best position because I thought I was under the ball and (in the) last minute I was leaning toward second base.”

Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt didn't think it was an easy game.

“The ball was in the air for a while because of the wind, a tough game,” said Vogt. “These things happen.”

Brennan, who made a sliding catch in foul territory against Giancarlo Stanton in the second run of the first inning, struggled to make a carom on an Anthony Rizzo double in the sixth after Cleveland cut the deficit to 3-2 an inning earlier had shortened.

Rizzo's line drive bounced off the low sidewall and deflected to Brennan. The ball left Brennan's hand and Anthony Volpe was able to score first and extend New York's lead to 4-2.

“I just got a little faster because I knew Volpe could run a little bit,” Brennan said. “I just misunderstood it a bit. Something I don’t normally do and it just happened in this situation.”

Brennan played 80 of his 98 games in right field and committed two errors in 132 chances during the regular season. In total, he made two errors in 161 chances.

Rocchio and Brennan's errors came after Cleveland committed just one error in its first six postseason games.

“We didn’t play Cleveland baseball today,” left fielder Steven Kwan said. “We made a few mistakes. Of course we are proud of our defense. So if we want to win some games, we have to play guardball.”

The Guardians made 87 errors in the regular season and finished tied for ninth place in the American League with Tampa Bay.

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