Yankees.com: ‘One pitch away’ from victory, Yanks endure Game 3 gut punch

From Bryan Hoch:

There have been a handful of mistakes that Luke Weaver believes he has gotten away with throughout this unexpected and magical ride as the Yankees’ de facto closer, offerings that spiked into the dirt or were discarded as harmless foul balls into the seats.

As Weaver felt a changeup roll awkwardly from his fingertips and float into the heart of the strike zone, he braced for impact, hoping to somehow be spared. No such luck: Jhonkensy Noel connected for a game-tying two-run homer, a blast that Weaver couldn’t bring himself to watch in real time.

“One pitch away,” Weaver said after the Yankees’ 7-5 loss to the Guardians in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. “I’ve just got to execute. I really felt like I let the team down there, let myself down. It’s baseball, things like that happen.”

So close to taking a commanding three-games-to-none series lead powered by clutch eighth-inning homers from Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees instead watched a walk-off celebration as Clay Holmes surrendered David Fry’s two-run homer in the 10th inning. They now lead the ALCS by the tighter margin of two games to one.

“That’s a great baseball game if you’re a fan watching, on both sides,” said Anthony Rizzo. “It’s tough to be on this end of it.”

You know what I’ll always remember about this game? Somehow, my brother was WAY ahead of my TV feed (and he was just watching on TV, too), and so he texted me, “You have got to be fucking kidding me” as Noel took the first ball. So I had to wait through the next pitch, knowing it LIKELY was going to be a home run, but not knowing for SURE (like maybe it was a bad error or something). It was not a fun experience.

In any event, whatever, it was one of the most unlikely playoff losses in baseball history (the Guardians were down to a 1% chance of winning after the double play in the ninth, the same odds as the Mets in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. There presumably have been bigger comebacks than that, but I can’t think of any that beat 1%. Certainly not the David Freese game in the 2010 World Series, since the Cardinals only had one out when their rally began, and when it got down to two outs, they had runners on already. I bet there HAS been a postseason game where a team scored THREE runs with two outs and nobody on, but I can’t think of any examples of something like that, so I think that this might honestly have been tied for the least likely playoff loss ever.

And, you know, isn’t that just kind of stupid? You’re up two runs, a bloop and a blast isn’t THAT unlikely. Hell, the THREE runs the Guardians scored to beat the Yankees in Game 3 of the 2022 ALDS was pretty bad, too, ya know?

That loss, by the way, should help put things into perspective. That was a tremendous comeback by the Guardians to put them up 2-1 in the best of five series, and the Yankees won. Here, the YANKEES lead 2-1. Dramatic comebacks are awesome and all, but they really don’t mean much for the next game.

Now, what DOES possibly mean something is that Luis Gil might suck tomorrow, and that’s a legit concern. Especially since Tommy Kahnle pitched nearly two innings, and Ian Hamilton is now out for the series (and Mark fucking Leiter or Marcus fucking Stroman might play key roles in relief tomorrow).

I still go back to the Lane Thomas at-bat where Weaver got ahead 0-2, and just started dicking around until it was 3-2 and he had to give Thomas something to hit, and Thomas hit it. The Noel pitch was just a bad changeup. Shit like that happens, but it shouldn’t have been a TWO-run home run, ya know? Or, of course, it shouldn’t have been a home run at all since the game should have already have been over. Weaver’s reaction to the homer is the featured image.

Oh well, great home runs by Judge and Stanton still, and it’s hard to be all, “Woe is us” about the closer giving up a home run when the “best closer in baseball” gave up TWO home runs, ya know? Shit happens, you just gotta turn the page. Just like how the Yankees turned the page after the Chuck Knoblauch game in 1998, how the turned the page after the 3-run meltdown in the 2022 ALDS, and how the turned the page after Game 2 of the ALDS in 2017 (all of those games were oddly enough against Cleveland).

Now, a quick word about how insanely shitty Aaron Boone is. Jon Berti bats fucking SIXTH as the first baseman?!?! What the fuck was that? Anthony Rizzo comes in for DEFENSE in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Jon Berti bats with a runner on second and two outs in the top of the eighth!? Make that make sense! The fucking Guardians literally WALKED Rizzo rather than pitch to him in the 10th inning, and you’re going to tell me he wasn’t a better pick than Berti in the 8th? And then you bring him in for defense ANYWAYS. It was one of the dumbest decisions I’ve ever seen Boone make, and he makes so many dumb decisions.

If Boone were trying to help the Guardians win, the game wouldn’t have been managed much differently (again, I know Ian Hamilton getting hurt threw a monkeywrench into his plans, but to go to Tim fucking Mayza with a runner on second base?! Just idiocy).

Hopefully Stanton continues to bat cleanup in Game 4.

The lack of off days will hopefully make this loss be forgotten quickly.