CLEVELAND — On Friday afternoon, when he was asked where Game 3 of the ALCS ranked for him in terms of its late dramatics, general manager Brian Cashman spoke bluntly.
“In the s–tter,” Cashman said.
So the Yankees did the only reasonable thing and flushed it, even as Game 4 came dangerously close to joining Game 3 as another epic gut punch.
Twenty-four hours after suffering a devastating loss in 10 innings, the Yankees picked themselves up and hung on for dear life in an 8-6 win over the Guardians on Friday night at Progressive Field.
After their taxed bullpen blew a 6-2 lead, the Yankees rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth against Emmanuel Clase before Tommy Kahnle nailed down the final three outs to put the Yankees up 3-1 in the ALCS, one win away from advancing to their first World Series since 2009.
“No lead is safe,” said Giancarlo Stanton, who crushed a three-run homer in the sixth inning for the 6-2 lead. “It’s a great team over there, but it’s just important to keep pushing. That’s what shows that we need every single person on our team to contribute in some way, and we’re going to need everybody. They answered the bell. It’s a wave. It’s a roller coaster.”
A night after Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes gave up two-run homers in the ninth and 10th innings, respectively, the Yankees’ bullpen had to record 15 outs and just barely made it there.
Aaron Boone was doing everything he could to stay away from Weaver, who had pitched on three of the last four days, but used Holmes and Tim Hill each for the fourth time in the last five days along with Jake Cousins, Mark Leiter Jr. (who was only added to the roster earlier in the day as an injury replacement) and Kahnle to reach the finish line.
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“Not a perfect game, but a gritty, tough, winning game,” Boone said.
Anthony Rizzo, who dropped a flip from Leiter in the bottom of the eighth inning that allowed the tying run to score with two outs, led off the top of the ninth with a single off Clase and was pinch-run for by Jon Berti.
Anthony Volpe then roped a single the other way to put runners on the corners.
One out later, Alex Verdugo hit a squibber to shortstop that Brayan Rocchio could not handle cleanly, though Berti was going to score from third either way for the 7-6 lead.
Gleyber Torres then delivered an RBI single for some extra breathing room as the Yankees solved Clase once again.
Kahnle put a pair of runners on in the bottom of the ninth, forcing Boone to warm up Weaver and nearly bring him in for one out before Kahnle finished it off himself.
“Obviously you’re going through big emotions [Thursday] night after the loss, but you gotta remember, we got a game [Saturday],” said Kahnle, who recorded five outs on 26 pitches Thursday. “These games are big, so you gotta just flush it, move on to the next one and get the W.”
A two-run shot by Juan Soto in the first inning and a solo homer by Austin Wells in the second put the Yankees ahead 3-1 before the Guardians pulled within 3-2 off Luis Gil, who got through four innings in his first outing in nearly three weeks.
Stanton’s three-run shot put the Yankees up 6-2 in the sixth inning before the lead slowly slipped away.
The Guardians scored three runs off Cousins and Holmes in the seventh inning before Leiter came in to get two big outs to escape the frame with the lead still intact.
But the Guardians got to Leiter in the eighth when David Fry hit a come-backer to the right of the mound.
Leiter booted it, chased after the ball and flipped it to Rizzo, who was handcuffed as the ball went through his legs, allowing the tying run to score.
Still, the Yankees came right back and answered in the top of the ninth off Clase, the game’s most dominant closer during the regular season who has now given up runs in back-to-back games.
“[The Guardians] come all the way back, we get a chance to get out of the inning but then they tie it and now we’re looking at a tie game with one of the best pitchers in the game coming in,” Aaron Judge said. “You can maybe hang your head or mope about it, but this team came out and responded.
“It just shows you right there the type of guys we have in this room.”