Yankees on verge of World Series after latest Emmanuel Clase meltdown

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 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 for a 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. 

A night after Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes gave up two-run homers in the ninth and 10th innings, the Yankees’ bullpen had to record 15 outs and just barely made it there. 

Anthony Rizzo, who dropped a flip from Mark Leiter Jr. in the bottom of the eighth inning that allowed the tying run to score, 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 got to Clase once again. 

Giancarlo Stanton’s three-run shot in the sixth inning put the Yankees up 6-2 before the lead slowly slipped away.

The Guardians scored three runs off Jake Cousins and Holmes in the seventh inning before tying it in the eighth off Leiter, who was added to the roster earlier in the day as an injury replacement for Ian Hamilton. 

Leiter got two huge outs to finish the seventh inning with the lead intact but then gave up a leadoff double to Bo Naylor in the eighth.

He got the next two batters in order and looked like he was going to escape the jam when he got David Fry to hit a comebacker to the right of the mound.

But Leiter booted it, chased after the ball and flipped it to Rizzo, who could not catch it as the ball went through his legs, allowing Naylor to score the tying run. 

After Luis Gil got through four innings of two-run ball in his first start in nearly three weeks, Tim Hill worked a scoreless fifth inning and Cousins did the same in the sixth. 

But Cousins came back out for the seventh inning and promptly walked the No. 9 hitter Rocchio before Steven Kwan singled to put runners on the corners. 

Boone then called on Holmes, who gave up the game-winning home run to Fry in the 10th inning Thursday night and was pitching for the fourth time in five days Friday.

Holmes struck out Fry in a rematch but then gave up back-to-back doubles to Jose Ramirez and Naylor that brought the Guardians within 6-5. 

After Holmes walked Lane Thomas to put the go-ahead run on base, he was relieved by Leiter, whose third pitch to Jhonkensy Noel — who drilled the game-tying home run off Weaver in the ninth inning of Game 3 — looked like it was headed for the left-field bleachers again.

But it died at the warning track and fell into the glove of Alex Verdugo for the second out before Leiter struck out Andres Gimenez to send it to the eighth. 

A two-run shot by Juan Soto in the first inning and a solo homer by Austin Wells in the second had put the Yankees ahead 3-1 before the Guardians pulled within 3-2 off Gil.