CLEVELAND — General manager Brian Cashman was blunt Friday afternoon when asked where Game 3 of the ALCS graded for him based on its late plays.
“In the s—ter,” Cashman said.
Even when Game 4 came close to matching Game 3 as another epic gut punch, the Yankees did the only reasonable thing and cleaned it up.
Twenty-four hours after suffering a devastating 10-inning loss, the Yankees picked themselves up and held on dearly for an 8-6 victory over the Guardians on Friday night at Progressive Field.
After their taxed bullpen took a 6-2 lead, the Yankees rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth against Emmanuel Glass before Tommy Conley struck out the final three outs to put the Yankees up 3-1 in the ALCS. 2009 First World Series Advance.
The Yankees’ bullpen had to record 15 outs on a night when Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes gave up two-run homers in the ninth and 10th innings.
Anthony Rizzo hit a flip from Mark Leiter Jr. in the bottom of the eighth inning that allowed the tying run, leading to a run in the bottom of the ninth with a single by Glass.
Anthony Wolfe then grounded out to runners on the corners with a single.
One out later, Alex Verdugo hit a squipper to shortstop that Brian Roccio couldn’t handle cleanly, though Bertie would go on to score from third for a 7-6 lead.
Kleyber Torres delivered an RBI single to give the Yankees some extra breathing room as they got back to the glass.
Giancarlo Stanton’s three-run shot in the sixth inning put the Yankees up 6-2 before the front slowly slipped away.
The Guardians scored three runs in the seventh inning off Jake Cousins and Holmes before tying the game in the eighth from Leiter, who had been added to the roster earlier in the day to replace an injured Ian Hamilton.
Leiter got two big outs to end the seventh inning with the lead intact, but gave up a leadoff double to Bo Naylor in the eighth.
He retired the next two batters and looked like he was going to escape the jam when he got David Fry to hit a comebacker to right on the mound.
But Leiter booted it, chased the ball and flipped it to Rizzo, who couldn’t catch it as the ball went through his legs, allowing Naylor to score the tying run.
After Lewis Gill allowed two runs in four innings in his first start in nearly three weeks, Tim Hill went scoreless in the fifth inning, and Cousins did the same in the sixth.
But Cousins came out again for the seventh inning and promptly got Rocchio out in the 9th before Steven Kwan put runners on base.
Boone then called on Holmes, who was pitching Friday for the fourth time in five days after giving up the game-winning home run to Frye in the 10th inning Thursday night.
Holmes struck out Frye in the rematch, but then gave up doubles to Jose Ramirez and Naylor that brought the Guardians within 6-5.
After Holmes scored the go-ahead run off Lane Thomas, he was relieved by Leiter, who drilled Weaver’s home-tying run in the ninth inning of Game 3 — Jankenzie Noel’s third pitch. Back to the left-field bleachers.
But it went dead on the warning track and landed in Alex Verdugo’s glove, before Leiter struck out Andres Gimenez in the eighth.
A two-run shot by Juan Soto in the first inning and a solo homer by Austin Wells in the second gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead before the Guardians pulled within 3-2.
“Friend of animals everywhere. Devoted analyst. Total alcohol scholar. Infuriatingly humble food trailblazer.”