Brock Holt became the first player in MLB history to hit for the cycle in a post-season game as the Boston Red Sox crushed the New York Yankees 16-1 to grab a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five American League division series.
Boston battered ineffective Yankees pitcher Luis Severino and silenced a charged-up Yankee Stadium crowd that emptied out fast on a night when Red Sox rookie manager Alex Cora made all the right moves.
By the ninth, back-up catcher Austin Romine was on the mound for New York - he gave up a two-run homer to Holt that completed his cycle - the accomplishment of hitting a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game.
The visitors, who had 18 hits to New York's five, put seven runs on the board in the fourth inning.
Game 4 is Tuesday night in the Bronx, where the Red Sox can put away the Yankees and advance to the AL championship series against the Houston Astros, last year's World Series champions.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
The Astros won 11-3 win at the Cleveland Indians to complete their maiden post-season sweep.
Houston were 2-0 up in the best-of-five series against Cleveland going into Monday's game at Progressive Field.
Cleveland led 2-1 going into the seventh, when Marwin Gonzalez put the Astros ahead with an RBI double.
George Springer - whose two home runs set a franchise record with nine in the post-season - and Carlos Correa had homers in a six-run eighth inning to put the Astros up 10-2.
The teams traded runs in the ninth as Houston prevailed to progress to their second consecutive ALCS.
Meanwhile, Manny Machado drove in four runs with a homer and double as the Los Angeles Dodgers won 6-2 at the Atlanta Braves to advance to the National League championship series.
It is the third straight trip to the NLCS for the Dodgers, who won the best-of-five match-up against the Astros 3-1.
Their next opponents will be the Milwaukee Brewers, who completed a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.
The NLCS will begin on Friday in Milwaukee.
The Braves were eliminated in their opening round of the post-season for the eighth consecutive time.
