The New York Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians 8-6 in the final game of a three-game series at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. The winning pitcher tonight was right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, who improves to 12-2 on the season. Indians starter Trevor Bauer took home the loss and falls to 9-9 on the season. The win ends the Yankees five-game losing streak, at the perfect time as well, heading into Toronto this weekend.

There was a touching moment pregame when Mike Aviles, an Indians utility player, caught the first pitch from his daughter Adriana who is suffering from Leukemia. Here is the video.

New York got on the board first again tonight, when Brian McCann took Trevor Bauer deep for his 20th home run of the season. The ball stayed just left of the foul pole staying fair, making it a 3-0 game for the Yankees in the top of the first inning. The Yankees would add to their lead in the second inning when Stephen Drew went deep, to make it a 4-0 game.

In the bottom of the third the Indians would start to chip away, as Michael Brantley hit a sac-fly to score Giovanny Urshela, followed by a Carlos Santana single to right to score Jose Ramirez, making it a 4-2 game.

In the very next inning, the Yankees would respond with Stephen Drew doubling to left that scored Didi Gregorious all the way from first base. The scoring didn't stop as Brett Gardner doubled to left to drive home Drew, extending the Yankee lead to 6-2. 

That would be Bauer’s last batter on the night, and the Cleveland bullpen looked to shutdown the Yankee lineup until they broke out again in the sixth inning when Gardner singled to center that scored Drew to make it 7-2 score.

The Indians would try to make a furious comeback in the bottom of the sixth as Abraham Almonte doubled to left, scoring Yan Gomes to make it 7-3. Two batters later, Lonnie Chisenhall singled home Almonte in what would be Eovaldi’s last batter to make it a 7-4 ballgame.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Indians would tack on another one with Francisco Lindor scoring on a wild pitch by Yankees set up man Dellin Betances. The Yankees would get that one back, however, in the top of the eighth when Brett Gardner picked up his third RBI of the night, singling home Stephen Drew to make it an 8-5 lead. Gardner finished the game going 3-for-4 with three RBI, while Drew went 2-for-4 with two RBI and four runs scored.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Yankees closer Andrew Miller came in for the first time since his blown save on Tuesday, and gave up a single to Yan Gomes that scored Lindor. The very next batter, Abraham Almonte, would strike out looking to end the game and give Miller his 25th save of the season.

Tonight was the debut of the Yankee first base prospect Greg Bird. According to MLB.com, Bird is the fourth best prospect in the Yankee system, and his promotion was highly anticipated with a ton of hype. However, he didn't make a good first impression as he ended the night going 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.

The Yankees called him up to help them get out of this offensive funk and get the bats going again, well his presence certainly did something as the Yankees did both of those things. Bird didn't impact the game with his game, but sometimes a promotion of a talented player can wake up the rest of the club, especially a veteran laden team.

A big part of the Yankees struggles were the lack of hitting from the 1-through-5 hitters. Tonight they awoke, except for Alex Rodriguez, as they went a combined 7-for-18 at the plate tonight, including the top two hitters in Gardner and Ellsbury who went a combined 5-for-8.

In the previous seven games the Yankees scored nine runs and had nine extra base hits. They also went 2-for-28 with runners in scoring position. Tonight they scored eight runs, had four extra base hits, and went 4-for-15 with runners in scoring position.

Joe Girardi talked about the mood after the McCann three-run homer in the first inning saying, “Well, it seems like that’s more runs than we scored in a week, so it changes the mood obviously and it gets Evo (Nathan Eovaldi) a little lead to work with and it was a nice hit for us.”

With the win tonight the Yankees stay at half a game back of the Toronto Blue Jays for first place in the AL East. In an afternoon showcase, the Blue Jays took down the Oakland A’s to sweep that series and continue their 11-game winning streak.

Tomorrow, the Yankees start arguably the most important series of the season when they go to Toronto to face the red hot Blue Jays with ace left-hander David Price on the mound. The Indians go on the road to face the Minnesota Twins for a three-game set.