Archives: 11/10/2024

Panned sequel to Oscar-winning hit makes just $7m domestically in second weekend, an 81% drop that places it among the steepest ever recorded
Michael SunSun 13 Oct 2024 22.04 EDTLast modified on Sun 13 Oct 2024 22.07 EDTShareJoker: Folie à Deux is continuing its downward trajectory after flopping in its opening weekend, with historically low box office figures in its second week.
The sequel to the 2019 film Joker, which was both a hit with critics and fans, Joker: Folie à Deux grossed $38m at the US box office in its opening weekend, far beneath previous predictions in the $50-70m range.
Flopping at the box office, hated by the critics – could Joker: Folie à Deux possibly be any worse?Read moreBut its second weekend was even worse, earning just $7m in the US across 4,102 theatres. The 81% drop is the steepest decline in history for a comic book movie, and among the steepest domestic declines for any movie.
An 81% drop places Joker: Folie à Deux in the top 20 biggest second weekend drops ever, according to charts by Box Office Mojo, which measures box office data gathered since 1982.
The record decline for a comic book movie was previously held by The Marvels, which bombed at the box office last year and suffered a 78% drop in its second weekend after being released in 4,030 cinemas.
Globally, Joker: Folie à Deux has grossed $165m to date, far from making back its $200m budget.
By comparison, Joker was made with a third of the budget of its sequel and opened to $96.2m in the US, making $248.4m globally in just one weekend. In total, it grossed more than $1bn globally, becoming the first R-rated film to do so, and remained the highest-grossing R-rated film until this year, when it was surpassed by another comic book film, Deadpool & Wolverine.
Joker was also a hit with critics, and won two Academy awards from 11 nominations, including best actor for Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role.
Phoenix reprises his role in the follow-up, while Lady Gaga joins the cast as love interest Lee Quinzel, based on the character Harley Quinn.
The sequel, which is a musical, has largely been dismissed by critics as “boring” and “startlingly dull”.
Both the Guardian and the Observer’s three-star reviews praised Lady Gaga’s performance, but deemed the film “laborious” and “indulgent”.

London film festivalBill Nighy, James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie form the unlikely trio who doggedly, quietly and courageously made the discovery that would change lives around the world
Peter BradshawTue 15 Oct 2024 16.52 EDTLast modified on Tue 15 Oct 2024 16.53 EDTShareThere is sympathy, warmth and directness – though perhaps not much in the way of explicit joy – in this intensely English true story that made headlines and changed lives around the world.
Screenwriters Jack Thorne, Emma Gordon and Rachel Mason, and director Ben Taylor, dramatise the heartache and strain and triumph that led to the first ever birth of what the press with a mixture of hostility and awe called “a test-tube baby” – that is, a baby conceived through in vitro fertilisation – on 25 July 1978: a little girl called Louise Brown (middle name Joy).
It was a medical breakthrough whose decades-long gestation involved dogged but underfunded research, media rancour and personal strain. The resulting drama is watchable, if a little functional, sometimes feeling like an adapted stage play.
James Norton plays pioneering biologist Robert Edwards, a bullish Cambridge scientist impatient with establishment resistance to his ideas; Bill Nighy, with his usual reticent elegance and gentle aplomb, plays obstetrician Dr Patrick Steptoe, whose revolutionary technique could make Edwards’ new ideas a reality – and most importantly of all, Thomasin McKenzie winningly plays embryologist nurse Jean Purdy who was the driving force for the research, which she carried out often while caring for her ailing mother – affectingly played here by Joanna Scanlan – and was the first person to recognise and describe the historic cluster of dividing cells.
In fact, Purdy’s scandalous exclusion from the official record after her heartbreakingly early death from cancer at the age of 39 is a later story the film doesn’t get round to telling. (But the appearance here of DNA scientist James Watson – who led the moral panic against in vitro research – has a historical echo. He and two other men got their Nobel prize, while erstwhile colleague Rosalind Franklin, who also died young from cancer, was for years unremembered.)
Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy emerge from this film as the intellectual odd-throuple of fertility science – and there is a likable, easy onscreen rapport between Norton, Nighy and McKenzie, as the trio plug doggedly away at their work, and commuting between Cambridge, where Edwards and Purdy were based, and Oldham, where Steptoe worked.
The hospital’s operating theatre supervisor Muriel Harris is formidably played by Tanya Moodie as a kind of composite “Matron” figure, blending the real-life person with NHS staff generally.
‘More important than going to the moon’: Bill Nighy, James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie on their film about the birth of IVFRead moreAnd what of the forces ranged against them, as they battled to cure the secret agony of infertility? The loathsome, reactionary press – unwilling or unable to grasp that IVF does not carry an increased risk of birth defects – are largely off-camera and they are always being testily dismissed in dialogue scenes, though their long-term effect on the heroine and heroes is not obvious. Edwards gets an (apparently imaginary) TV debate with Watson, and the studio audience are yelping with dismay at the fake news that Watson is doing nothing to suppress. The medical establishment, in the form of the Medical Research Council, shrugs at their work – and Edwards demands to know if they would be more interested if it was a “male” issue: a shrewd point.
As for the religious scruples, Thorne imagines a specifically religious tension between Purdy and her mother, which perhaps creates a certain type of side-melodrama the story didn’t really need. Inevitably, Purdy’s own childlessness is foregrounded and the film has Purdy actually being gynaecologically examined by Bill Nighy’s caring and fatherly Steptoe as a kind of personal-slash-professional favour to her – a rather bizarre moment, arguably, but Nighy and McKenzie carry it off cordially enough.
And so the trio’s story is amiably portrayed, with McKenzie’s Jean bicycling all over picturesque Cambridge, including the courts of King’s College – and in other scenes settling down with Edwards for another motorway caff lunch of egg and chips on the way to or from Oldham. She is the one on whom a personal toll is being taken – the men are relatively unaffected – but even she doesn’t seem terribly worn down. It’s a somewhat stagey reconstruction but an approachable and humane account of a great moment in scientific history.

On October 14, in an interview regarding the upcoming 29th Provincial Drama Festival, Chen Yin, director of the Arts Division at the Fujian Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, stated, “This year’s event will feature a total of 35 major plays and 2 smaller productions.”

As a region rich in traditional Chinese opera, Fujian is home to 23 actively inherited local opera forms, including 18 native genres and 5 that cross provincial boundaries. Additionally, there are 5 types of shadow and puppet theater, showcasing a vibrant variety of dramatic arts.

The 9th Fujian Arts Festival is set to take place from October 21 to November 15. This year’s festival will include main events as well as various regional activities, highlighting a range of art forms such as drama, acrobatics, and folk arts. The principal activities will be hosted in Fuzhou, featuring an opening and closing ceremony, professional art performances, and community cultural events across six series.

Among the professional activities, the 29th Provincial Drama Festival and the 6th Provincial Music, Dance, Acrobatics, and Folk Arts Excellent Program Showcase will spotlight a selection of 37 and 15 performances, respectively. These will be accompanied by discussions and lectures, along with special exchange performances.

During the 29th Provincial Drama Festival, 14 genres will compete, including Minnan Opera, Puxian Opera, Liyuan Opera, Gaojia Opera, and Xianzi Opera (also known as Xiang Opera). The event will also feature string puppetry, hand puppetry, and stage plays. Notably, endangered genres such as Liyuan Opera, Sipin Opera, Sanjiao Opera, Meilin Opera, and Mountain Songs will participate, with Chen emphasizing the commitment to a “triple approach” in operatic creation, balancing modern works, newly adapted historical dramas, and traditional theater adaptations.

The 6th Provincial Music, Dance, Acrobatics, and Folk Arts Excellent Program Showcase will highlight 15 performances, reflecting the diverse artistic disciplines present across Fujian. Chen believes this demonstrates the province’s ongoing commitment to maintaining its stronghold in Chinese opera while promoting balanced growth across various art forms, making it a fertile ground for operas, musicals, and dance dramas.

Wang Xinbin, deputy director of the Fujian Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, pointed out that the arts festival serves as an opportunity to creatively connect and deeply integrate various elements of Fujian’s culture and landscapes. The department has planned tourism products like “Traveling Through Fujian with Opera,” aiming to elevate the tourism experience by enhancing cultural depth and quality while promoting the consumption and dissemination of cultural arts. This showcases Fujian’s rich heritage and breathtaking landscapes, reinforcing the “Starting Point of the Maritime Silk Road, Fresh Fujian” brand.

A single mother battling terminal cancer in Utah has tragically passed away after successfully raising over $1 million on GoFundMe to cover her funeral expenses and support her two children. Erika Diarte-Carr, who was only 30 years old, lost her fight against small cell lung cancer after a two-year battle, as confirmed by her cousin, Angelique Rivera. She leaves behind her seven-year-old son, Jeremiah, and her five-year-old daughter, Aaliyah.

According to her GoFundMe page, Erika was diagnosed with stage four small cell lung cancer on May 7, 2022, at which point doctors discovered multiple tumors had metastasized throughout her body. In January 2024, she faced another diagnosis of Cushing’s syndrome, a rare disorder that led to a host of health challenges, including rapid weight gain, swelling, muscle and bone deterioration, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and a round face.

Erika recalled how her doctor’s words echoed in her mind, stating, “I hope you have good support at home, because you will need it for a long and difficult journey ahead.” On September 18, a tumor specialist delivered the devastating news that she had just three months left to live, adding to her burden of planning her own funeral.

In a poignant update on her fundraising page, she expressed her determination to make the most of the time she had left with her children. “I’ve been told I have only three months to live, and I want to make the most of it with my babies and the people I love. I need to ensure that my kids can live once I’m gone, and planning my own funeral is the hardest part of that.”

Erika, who had always been hesitant to accept help from others, was driven to seek financial support due to her inability to work and the absence of life insurance. Initially, she aimed to raise around $5,000 for funeral costs while hoping to secure a larger sum for her children.

“I have always felt ashamed and embarrassed about letting others know the truth,” Erika admitted. “I tried to keep this a secret for as long as I could, but my physical condition began to dictate my life, and I couldn’t hide it anymore.”

In an update on October 3, Erika expressed heartfelt gratitude to everyone who donated through GoFundMe, sharing her plans to use the funds for a memorable family trip, leaving her children with lifelong memories. As of the evening of October 14, her fundraising campaign had garnered over $1.18 million.

She reassured her donors, saying, “I can promise you that your support will bring stability to my children’s lives. I will place all the money into their trust fund.”

Italians who go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy will face jail terms and fines of up to €1m
Reuters in RomeWed 16 Oct 2024 19.09 BSTLast modified on Wed 16 Oct 2024 19.29 BSTShareItaly’s parliament has made it illegal for couples to go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy – a pet project of the prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s party that activists say is meant to target same-sex partners.
Since taking office in 2022, Meloni has pursued a highly conservative social agenda, looking to promote what she sees as traditional family values, making it progressively harder for LGBTQ couples to become legal parents.
On Wednesday the upper-house senate voted into law a bill proposed by Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party by 84 votes to 58. The bill had already been approved by the lower house last year.
The legislation extends a surrogacy ban already in place in Italy since 2004 to those who go to countries such as the United States or Canada, where it is legal, imposing jail terms of up to two years and fines of up to €1m (£836,000).
The shapeshifter: who is the real Giorgia Meloni?Read more“Motherhood is absolutely unique, it absolutely cannot be surrogated and it is the foundation of our civilisation,” the Brothers of Italy senator Lavinia Mennuni said during the parliamentary debate. “We want to uproot the phenomenon of surrogacy tourism.”
Earlier this year, Meloni called surrogacy an “inhuman” practice that treated children as supermarket products, echoing a position expressed by the Catholic church.
On Tuesday, demonstrators gathered near the senate voicing their outrage at the bill, saying the government was lashing out at LGBTQ people and damaging those who wanted to have children despite the fact that Italy has a sharply declining birthrate.
“If someone has a baby, they should be given a medal. Here instead you are sent to jail … if you don’t have children in the traditional way,” Franco Grillini, a longtime activist for LGBTQ rights in Italy, told Reuters at the demonstration.
Alessia Crocini, the president of Rainbow Families, said 90% of Italians who choose surrogacy were heterosexual couples but they mostly did so in secret, meaning the new ban would de facto affect only gay couples who could not hide it.
The clampdown on surrogacy comes against the backdrop of falling birthrates, with the national statistics institute ISTAT saying in March that births had dropped to a record low in 2023, after the 15th consecutive annual decline.
Grillini said: “This is a monstrous law. No country in the world has such a thing.”

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Rivers State House of Assembly, led by beleaguered Speaker, Martin Amaewhule, has declared the seats of the factional speaker, Victor Oko-Jumbo; Chief of Staff to the Governor, Edison Ehie, and two others vacant.
The Assembly’s action came on the heels of controversy surrounding Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s 2024 Appropriation Bill.
House Leader, Major Jack, and 25 other members had presented the motion seeking that the seats of the four members be declared vacant.
They said the motion became necessary as the affected lawmakers allegedly continued refusal to attend and participate in legislative meetings of the Assembly for a period amounting, in aggregate, to more than one-third of the total number of days the legislature met in the first session of the 10th Assembly.
During the sitting yesterday, the lawmakers said the motion was “in compliance with the combined provisions Section of 109 (1)(e),(f) and Section 109 (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as altered”.
They added that the affected lawmakers had been absent in the past 56 legislative sittings of the second Session.
Other affected lawmakers were Adolphus Timothy Oruibienimigha (Opobo/Nkoro constituency), and Hon. Sokari Goodboy Sokari (Ahoada West constituency).
Debating the motion, members spoke in unison in support, and sympathised with the constituents of the affected constituencies, whose representatives allegedly abdicated legislative duties.
Amaewhule recalled that after the peace parley held at the instance of President Bola Tinubu, the Assembly withdrew its impeachment notice on the governor and also recalled the four suspended members, yet they stubbornly refused to attend sittings of the house.
When the speaker put the question to vote, the Assembly voted in the affirmative that the seats of the four members be declared vacant, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) be notified to conduct elections to fill the vacancies.
Amaewhule reiterated that given the fact the Court of Appeal upheld all the injunctive orders given by the Federal High Court, Fubara was enjoined to present the 2024 Appropriate Bill to the Assembly.
The governor had presented the N800 billion budget to only four out of 31 members of the Assembly, sparking legal challenges.
Earlier, House Leader, Hon. Major Jack, had informed the Assembly that he was in receipt of the judgement of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the judgement of Justice Omotosho of the Federal High Court, recognising the authenticity of the Rivers State House of Assembly under the speakership of Amaewhule, which was appealed against by Fubara.
Jack laid the document on the table and it was received and adopted by the house as a working document.
Meanwhile, lawmakers loyal to Fubara restated their resolve that the seats of Amaewhule and 24 others remained vacant.
Victor Oko-Jumbo said the seats of the 25 lawmakers remained vacant after their defection from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC), adding that they must be filled through a bye-election conducted by INEC.
Oko-Jumbo explained that the 25 seats were declared vacant on December 13, 2024 by the then speaker, Ehie, and regretted that the commission had been foot-dragging on the conduct of bye-elections to fill the vacant seats.
He said the inability of INEC to do the needful since December 13, 2023 had created room for unnecessary distractions from Amaewhule and other 24 lawmakers.
Oko-Jumbo called on the commission to discharge its constitutional responsibility to the people of Rivers State.

On October 13, SpaceX successfully conducted the fifth test flight of its Starship spacecraft, launching the Starship 5 from its private spaceport, Starbase, in Boca Chica, Texas. This mission marked a significant milestone, as the Super Heavy rocket booster made a successful return to the launch site seven minutes after liftoff, where it was captured mid-air by a robotic arm referred to as “The Chopsticks.”

According to reports from various media outlets, the launch took place at 7:25 AM local time. This was the first flight designed specifically to have the Super Heavy booster return directly to the launch point and be caught by the mechanical arm on the launch tower.

Space news site Space.com reported that the booster separated from the Starship at an altitude of approximately 74 kilometers. After flying for about seven minutes, the booster returned to the launch tower, while the Starship continued its journey and ultimately fell into the Indian Ocean, where it exploded after completing its mission.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, took to social media platform X to announce, “The tower has caught the rocket.” SpaceX stated that the primary objectives of this test included successfully capturing the booster and ensuring that the Starship could re-enter the atmosphere and perform a controlled landing, with hopes of a planned splashdown.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed on October 12 that it had approved this test flight, indicating that SpaceX met all safety and environmental requirements for this orbital flight. A spokesperson from SpaceX’s California headquarters, stated, “This day is worthy of the history books in engineering.”

According to Reuters, both the Starship and the Super Heavy rockets are fully reusable systems aimed at transporting people and cargo to Earth’s orbit, the Moon, and beyond. Musk envisions a future where Starship could carry humans to Mars, and NASA is also looking forward to using an improved version of Starship for future Artemis crewed missions to the Moon.

The Starship system consists of two main components: the spacecraft itself and the Super Heavy rocket that propels it. SpaceX attempted its first flight of Starship in April of last year, which ended in an explosion four minutes after launch, with the two parts failing to separate. The second test in November likewise concluded with an explosion post-separation, resulting in the loss of signal from the spacecraft. In March of this year, during the third test, both components did separate but splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico instead of the intended Indian Ocean. Finally, in June, Starship successfully re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Indian Ocean, which thrilled Musk as he celebrated this achievement.

Sissy Spacek unforgettably evolves from ugly duckling to swan to something else entirely in the groundbreaking film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel
Peter BradshawThu 17 Oct 2024 13.00 BSTLast modified on Thu 17 Oct 2024 13.02 BSTShareBrian De Palma’s insouciantly horrible masterpiece from 1976, adapted from the novel by Stephen King, and mixing in tropes and tricks from Hitchcock’s Psycho, is now rereleased. This is the extraordinary exploitation shocker that also conveyed – or anyway fabricated – an impassioned sympathy for a bullied teenage girl with learning disabilities and telekinetic powers. It was a horror classic that didn’t conform to the narrative beats of the genre; it was a scary movie in which the terrifying demon was also the final girl.
Sissy Spacek gives an amazing performance as Carrie, a shy high school student and put-upon daughter of Margaret (Piper Laurie), whose fanatical religious devotion and fear of sex – and fear of Carrie having sex – stems from having been seduced and abandoned by Carrie’s now absent father many years previously. Poor, innocent Carrie still has not started her period, and when this happens in the showers after a volleyball game, she panics uncomprehendingly and the mean girls humiliate her by throwing tampons and chanting: “Plug it up!” Gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) is outraged and – angrily smoking a cigarette and still wearing her PE shorts in the principal’s office – decides to hand out exemplary punishments to this crowd of bullies. This takes the form of a mortifying workout session which so enrages the queen-bee bully Chris (Nancy Allen) that she resolves to take a satanically wicked revenge on Carrie at the prom.
So much of Carrie now looks, 48 years on, unsubtle to say the least – and yet De Palma is a master of making that lack of subtlety work cinematically. The frankly outrageous soft-porn aesthetic of the initial girls’ locker room scene gives us Spacek almost languorously soaping herself in the shower, in a way that is madly inconsistent with her character. And yet without that absurdly provocative sequence, the “period” moment wouldn’t have been so transgressive, so nasty, so tactless. This is crass, this is the male gaze, sure – and yet it is subverted by its casually explicit violence and vulnerability. It’s impossible to feel anything other than genuine protective concern for a female character who is later to show that she doesn’t need anyone’s protection.
And that staggering, drawn-out prom sequence, in which Carrie evolves from ugly duckling to swan to something else entirely – its meaning and atmosphere changes on a subsequent viewing. The first time you watch it, the denouement is a shock, despite the fact that in previous scenes you’ve seen the nasty planning that has gone into it. But the second time, the scene is, end to end, an unbearable ordeal of pure evil: minute after minute goes by while Carrie progressively relaxes and begins to enjoy herself with the wonderful boy who’s taken her on this date. And then, when she unleashes her gonzo uproar of telekinetic rage, De Palma fragments the spectacle with a split-screen: a crazy death metal of carnage.
Carrie is about all the things it didn’t know it was about: internalised misogyny and self-hate, and the theatre of cruelty involved in high school popularity. It isn’t explicitly about school shootings and yet it shows you, like no other film I have ever seen, the horrifying wish-fulfilment ecstasy of such horrific acts. De Palma is the only director who could have done it.
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Carrie is in UK and Irish cinemas from 18 October

On October 12, Kim Yeo-jung, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, issued a stark warning to the South Korean government. She stated that if drones were to enter Pyongyang airspace again, Seoul would face a “terrible disaster.”

According to reports from Agence France-Presse, North Korea accused South Korea of sending drones into the airspace above the capital on October 3, 9, and 10, distributing propaganda materials.

Initially, South Korea’s Defense Minister Lee Jong-suk denied these allegations; however, the Joint Chiefs of Staff later revised their stance, declaring they were “unable to confirm the validity of North Korea’s claims.”

In her statement, Kim Yeo-jung called out Seoul’s refusal to acknowledge these allegations, implying that the drones were launched by “military rogues,” a term she used to refer to the South Korean military.

She remarked, “If we detect South Korean drones in our capital’s airspace again, it will lead to a terrible disaster.”

The Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday that the alleged South Korean drones dropped materials criticizing the North Korean regime, spreading “provocative rumors and nonsense.”

They described the incident as a “flagrant violation of international law and a serious military aggression.”

For years, South Korean activists have disregarded official obstacles, consistently sending balloons filled with anti-Kim Jong-un leaflets across the northern border. These balloons have also carried USB drives containing popular South Korean music and dramas, provoking a strong backlash from North Korea.

In response, since May, the North Korean government has sent over 6,000 garbage balloons toward South Korea.

Yankees defeat Guardians 6-3 in Game 2 of ALCSGame 3 of best-of-seven tie is Thursday in ClevelandAssociated PressWed 16 Oct 2024 00.19 EDTLast modified on Wed 16 Oct 2024 01.07 EDTShareNEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit a two-run drive into Monument Park for his first home run of this postseason, and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 AL Championship Series lead.
Judge, who entered with just one RBI in the playoffs, hit a sacrifice fly in a two-run second that put the Yankees ahead 3-0. With New York leading 4-2 lead in the seventh, the likely AL MVP drove a fastball at the letters from Hunter Gaddis 414 feet to center for his 14th career postseason home run.
Drama, rivalries and Ohtani: how MLB’s playoffs got their mojo backRead moreIn a matchup of aces who had off nights, Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee got just just four outs in the shortest start of his professional career and an erratic Gerrit Cole was chased after four walks in four and one-third innings.
<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">AARON JUDGE DOUBLES THE <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Yankees?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@YANKEES</a> LEAD! <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ALCS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ALCS</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/XBzdccyp3A\">pic.twitter.com/XBzdccyp3A</a></p>&mdash; MLB (@MLB) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1846376559340392631?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 16, 2024</a></blockquote>\n\n"}}”>AARON JUDGE DOUBLES THE @YANKEES LEAD! #ALCS pic.twitter.com/XBzdccyp3A
— MLB (@MLB) October 16, 2024Winner Clay Holmes, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle combined for three and two-thirds scoreless innings. José Ramírez hit a ninth-inning home run off Luke Weaver, just the second earned run New York’s bullpen has allowed over 23 and one-third innings in six postseason games.
After a day off, Game 3 is Thursday in Cleveland. The Yankees lead the ALCS 2-0 for the first time since 2009 against the Los Angeles Angels.
New York’s Gleyber Torres reached base leading off for the fifth time in the playoffs and had three hits. Anthony Rizzo had two hits and is 3 for 7 in two games since returning from a pair of fractured fingers that caused him to miss the Division Series.
Rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio and right fielder Will Brennan committed run-scoring errors for the Guardians.
Rocchio dropped Judge’s first-inning popup, allowing Torres to score. After Cleveland closed to 3-2, Brennan bobbled the ball when he tried for a barehand pickup of Rizzo’s sixth-inning double that caromed off the low wall down the right-field line. Anthony Volpe, who had been on first, sprinted home.
Steven Kwan extended his Cleveland-record postseason hitting streak to 12 games.
Alex Verdugo had a opposite-field RBI double in the two-run second that glanced off a shoulder of left field umpire Vic Carapazza and went down the line.
Cleveland closed to 3-2 in the fifth when Josh Naylor hit a sacrifice fly and, after Holmes relieved with the bases loaded, Will Brennan grounded into a run-scoring forceout.
Cleveland went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners.
Cole escaped two-on, one-out trouble in the third and then a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth when pinch-hitter David Fry fouled out and Rocchio took a knuckle curve at the top of the strike zone for a called third strike in a nine-pitch at-bat.
Holmes struck out Austin Hedges on low sinker to leave the bases loaded in the fifth.