CLEVELAND — When Mark Leiter Jr. shovelled the ball toward first base and Anthony Rizzo bobbled it, the New York Yankees were on the brink of a nightmare loss.
David Fry had just pushed a weakly hit grounder up the first base line and while Leiter and Rizzo were fumbling the play, Bo Naylor was racing home to tie the game 6-6. At Progressive Field, the sellout crowd roared in anticipation of another epic finish.
But the Yankees escaped the inning without further damage and promptly started a rally of their own against Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase. Two runs later, the Yankees had a new lead and this time they held onto it, beating the Guardians 8-6 to take a 3-1 lead in the ALCS and put themselves on the brink of their first World Series appearance since 2009.
“I thought we played an excellent game,” said manager Aaron Boone. “Not a perfect game, but a gritty, tough, winning game.”
The Yankees did a lot of things well in this one, starting with their sluggers. Austin Wells hit a solo shot, Juan Soto contributed a two-run homer and Giancarlo Stanton went deep for the third time this series, hitting a three-run shot in the sixth.
Thanks to those three swings, the Yankees are on the brink of their 41st American League pennant.
“It feels like nothing until we get it done,” Stanton said afterwards. “As far as I’m concerned we haven’t done nothing.”
At the same time, the Yankees’ bullpen looks vulnerable, creating reason for concern despite New York’s commanding position in the series. Jake Cousins, Clay Holmes and Leiter Jr. were each charged with earned runs and while Tommy Kahnle eventually got the save, he allowed two baserunners before closing out the win.
“Frankly, I wasn’t quite sure how we were going to get there,” Boone acknowledged.
Only three Yankees have hit more post-season home runs than Stanton, who’s now tied with Babe Ruth and teammate Aaron Judge on the franchise’s all-time list with 15. Bernie Williams (22), Derek Jeter (20) and Mickey Mantle (18) are the only Yankees with more.
In 35 career post-season games, Stanton now has 33 RBI to go along with his 15 home runs.
“He did it again,” Boone said. “Just locked in, prepared.”
“Special,” Judge added.
Adding to the level of difficulty for Stanton, he was facing Cade Smith, the Canadian rookie who has drawn the assignment of facing the Yankees’ best hitters three games in a row. In nine post-season innings entering play Friday, Smith had allowed just one run on two hits while striking out 15.
But this time, Smith left a fastball over the middle of the plate and Stanton crushed it.
“It ain’t easy to do that,” Boone said. “Big spot. Big swing.”
Before the game, Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt expressed continued confidence in his closer, even after Clase had allowed two home runs in Game 3.
“He’s the best closer in the world,” Vogt said. “For Emmanuel, the year that he’s put together and who he’s been his whole career, he’s the best closer in the game, and I’m excited to give him the ball with a lead.”
Afterwards, Vogt said Clase left a couple of pitches over the middle of the plate and paid for it. Of course, both bullpens are showing signs of vulnerability, which is perhaps to be expected given how heavily they’ve been used this month.
As for Wells, the rookie catcher had been struggling at the plate, with a .411 OPS in September followed by a .220 OPS in October. And though the Yankees wisely bumped him from the cleanup spot earlier in the ALCS, they continued to express confidence in his swing.
“Part of it might be (he’s) just a little worn down,” Boone acknowledged. “That’s part of it. But I also have a lot of confidence in him as a hitter and who he is, just his DNA as a hitter. Moving forward, I think he has a chance to have the best at-bats in the best moments. He’s that kind of hitter.”
Meanwhile, the Guardians finally got a breakout game from Josh Naylor, who had an RBI single in the third and a game-changing two-run double in the seventh. Entering play Friday, the Mississauga, Ont., native didn’t have an extra-base hit in the ALCS after a regular season in which he hit 31 home runs, a career-high.
On Saturday, Carlos Rodon will look to recapture the dominant form he showed in Game 1 of the ALCS while Tanner Bibee will pitch on short rest for the Guardians. For the Yankees, it’ll be their first chance to advance to the World Series since they played the Astros in Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS — and lost.
“Just treat it like we have these past couple games,” Judge said. “The best thing to do in this situation is keep it simple.”
In an elimination game, the Guardians will need some big swings to keep pace with New York’s power. Whether or not that happens for Cleveland, they’ve certainly shown an ability to defy the odds when they seem most vulnerable.
“Even when we get punched in the teeth, we punch right back,” Vogt said. “That’s who we’ve been all year. That’s how this team has played all year long. It’s in our DNA.”