Yankees.com: Yanks clutch late to move to 1 win away from World Series

From Bryan Hoch:

The celebration spilling out of the first-base dugout was exuberant as Giancarlo Stanton silenced the crowd with a three-run homer in the sixth inning, his trip around the bases seemingly providing breathing room for what the Yankees hoped would be a low-stress tour through their heavily taxed bullpen.

They should have known that nothing comes easily in the postseason.

A wild back-and-forth battle was ultimately decided by Alex Verdugo’s run-scoring infield dribbler as the Yankees got to closer Emmanuel Clase for the second time in as many nights, now standing on the doorstep of the World Series after securing an 8-6 victory over the Guardians in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series.

“The key is to go play one more game – go out there and try to win that game,” Juan Soto said on the field after the game. “Forget about the series, just try to go out there and win the game today, like we did today. Just try to win the game, that’s all we need to do.”

In 1997, Mariano Rivera, a new closer for the Yankees at the time, gave up a game-tying home run to Sandy Alomar Jr. in the 8th inning with Joe Torre trying to go to Mo for a five-out save to send the Yankees to their second-straight ALCS. Torre went to Mendoza for the ninth, and Cleveland walked the Yankees off. In the following game, Andy Pettitte gave up 4 runs early, and although the Yankees made an attempt at a comeback, they never tied the game, losing the series.

In 2022, the Yankees blew a postseason game in the ninth inning after leading by two runs or more for the first time in franchise history (yes, Game 3 was only the SECOND time ever), putting the Yankees down 2-1 in the best of five series. In the next game, Gerrit Cole pitched a gem to tie the series, with the Yankees winning the series in Game 5.

So, in other words, the Yankees have a history of coming back from devastating losses in Cleveland, and they have a history of NOT coming back (they also came back from the phantom hit-by-pitch call preceding Lindor’s grand slam in Game 2 of the 2017 ALDS, which was followed by the classic 1-0 win with Greg Bird hitting the go-ahead home run off of Andrew Miller, and they also blew the series after the midges game in 2007), well, thank goodness they came back in this one, even though it sure seemed unlikely at one point.

Playing without Luke Weaver, and with Ian Hamilton’s injury forcing Mark Leiter Jr. to being a key part of the bullpen, Aaron Boone for some reason determined he was only going to use Luis Gil for 80 pitches for…I don’t fucking know why, and despite having an outstanding fourth inning, Gil wasn’t allowed to face the top of the order for a third time (I get the logic, but I also don’t get why you wouldn’t push things with the bullpen in such a sorry state). Tim Hill was electric, but only pitched an inning. After Hill’s inning, Giancarlo Stanton hit a three-run blast off of Cade Smith, who, as the Cleveland announcers noted, hadn’t had a really bad outing ALL SEASON, and had looked DOMINANT every time he pitched in this series. Jake Cousins was good in his first inning (the sixth), but struggled in his second.

Cousins walked the leadoff batter, and then allowed a single, leading Boone to go to Clay Holmes for David Fry, the guy who had hit the game-winning home run off of Holmes just one night earlier. Clay Holmes is a choker, as we all know, but to be fair to the dude, he was also pitching for his fourth time in five days, so he was understandably a bit weary, and the Guardians jumped all over him, with two doubles cutting the lead to one. Mark Leiter Jr. came in and somehow got out of it, including allowing one of the loudest outs you’ll EVER see, as the Game 3 hero, Noel, pinch-hit, and hit what sure as heck LOOKED like a go-ahead three-run home run, but instead was just a fly ball that died at the warning track (and which Verdugo made a good catch of it running it down). The Cleveland radio guy called it basically as a home run. I think EVERYone thought it was out. It thankfully was not.

However, Leiter then allowed a leadoff double to Bo Naylor in the eighth, and after a groundout moved the runner to third, he remarkably retired Stephen Kwan on a pop-up, but then fucked up a slow groundball, kicking the ball, and when he corralled it, threw wildly to Rizzo, who made a bad attempt at the catch. Rizzo was AWFUL on defense tonight.

Luckily, though, after Leiter got out of the inning without allowing the go-ahead run to score (Fry reached second on the error at first), Rizzo partially redeemed himself as the Yankees once again got to Emmanuel Clase, scoring two runs, one of which scored on an error by Rocchio on a shitty groundball by Alex Verdugo. It really IS hilarious that Verdugo hitting one of his trademark shitty groundballs HELPED the Yankees this time around! After a clutch Gleyber RBI single, the Yankees turned to Tommy Kahnle for the save, and although it was harder than it should have been, he got the job done.

3-1 is sure better than 2-2.

Verdugo’s shitty groundball is the featured image.