By Tyler Kepner, Chris Kirschner, Brendan Kuty and Zack Meisel
CLEVELAND — Down to their final out and facing a three-games-to-none deficit to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, the Cleveland Guardians erupted for a 7-5 comeback win in 10 thrilling innings at Progressive Field on Thursday.
David Fry was the final hero on a night filled with them for the Guardians, who now trail two games to one. One inning after Jhonkensy Noel tied it with a two-out, two-run shot off Luke Weaver, Fry blasted a game-ending two-run homer to left off Clay Holmes, sending a chilly crowd of 32,531 into a frenzy.
“Amazing game to witness,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That was playoff baseball. Both sides just kept coming with haymakers.”
Trailing by two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, with the bases empty and two outs, the Guardians stirred with a double by Lane Thomas off the high wall in deep left-center. Manager Stephen Vogt sent Noel to bat for Daniel Schneemann and got exactly what he wanted: a no-doubt, game-tying rocket into the left field bleachers.
It was the first blown save in five playoff chances for Weaver, who has appeared in all seven of the Yankees’ postseason games. It followed a stunning failure by the Guardians’ closer, Emmanuel Clase, who surrendered back-to-back homers to lose the lead in the eighth — first to Aaron Judge, who tied the game, then to Giancarlo Stanton, who put the Yankees ahead, 4-3.
After Noel tied it up in the ninth, the Yankees left two runners on when Pedro Avila struck out Anthony Volpe to end the top of the 10th. Bo Naylor greeted Holmes with a single in the bottom of the inning, and after a bunt and a ground out, Fry launched a 1-2 sinker 399 feet into the left field bleachers for the victory.
Big Christmas comes early
The Guardians were down to their final out, but after the Yankees’ pair of hulking sluggers unloaded on Cleveland’s top relievers, it was time for the Guardians’ edge rusher-sized masher to respond. Noel hacked at an 88-mph changeup, quickly discarded his bat, put his head down and started the most memorable trot around the bases of his career. The two-run blast landed halfway up the left-field bleachers and rescued the Guardians from a crushing defeat.
Noel received a promotion to the majors in June, and uncorked a home run to center in his first career at-bat in Baltimore. For much of the summer, he wielded some useful right-handed muscle. In September, though, Noel went 6-for-51 with no home runs, 18 strikeouts and a .363 OPS. Before his ninth-inning moonshot, he was 1-for-15 in the postseason. But the 6-foot-3, 250-pound slugger, nicknamed “Big Christmas” by his manager, always poses a power threat, and he unloaded at the perfect time for Cleveland.
Stanton, Judge turn the tide
When the Yankees traded for Giancarlo Stanton in December 2017, they imagined pairing him with Aaron Judge, and the pair slugging them toward a World Series.
On Thursday night, nearly seven years later, they may have realized that dream.
Judge’s two-run home run in the eighth inning tied the game at 3-3 and it came against reliever Emmanuel Clase, who might be the best closer in baseball. It seemed like the team’s high-water mark until Stanton crushed a solo shot in the very next at-bat to give the Yankees the lead.
For Judge, it was his second home run in as many games, and his second of the postseason. It was Stanton’s third homer of the playoffs.
Judge’s homer came on a 99.2 mph fastball over the outside part of the plate and he crushed it to right field at 109.9 mph, the ball just barely getting over the wall at 356 feet. The Yankees’ dugout exploded as he rounded first base.
Stanton ended a seven-pitch at-bat with a home run to right-center field, blasting it 106.1 mph and 390 feet. After Stanton crossed home plate, Cleveland issued a challenge: They asked umpires to make sure that Stanton’s foot actually touched first base as he rounded the bases. It didn’t work.
Stanton — the majors’ active home run leader, with 429 – is hitting .308 with a 1.131 OPS in the playoffs, performing as the best version of himself when the Yankees need him most.
It was an epic momentum shift. At one point, the Yankees had gone 13 straight batters without reaching base, and they rallied against Cleveland’s most feared pitcher.
Clase’s nightmarish postseason continues
Cleveland’s closer allowed five earned runs and two home runs in 74 1/3 innings during the regular season. He has been tagged for six earned runs and three home runs in six innings during the postseason. Judge and Stanton took him deep and altered the course of the ALCS in a span of eight pitches in Game 3.
The Guardians’ script had unfolded exactly how they envisioned it. Matthew Boyd, somehow their most consistent starter even though he joined their organization a few months ago once he recovered from elbow surgery, delivered five more sharp innings, the longest outing by a Cleveland starter in October. Cade Smith breezed through the heart of the Yankees’ order in 10 pitches. Tim Herrin and Hunter Gaddis recorded five outs, setting the stage for Clase to secure a four-out save against the Yankees’ behemoths.
Gaddis served up a two-run blast to Judge in Game 2, and Clase suffered the same fate in Game 3. Stanton powered a 90-mph slider over the center-field wall. It’s the first time Clase has ever allowed multiple homers in an outing.
Hamilton’s exit could be a concern
Yankees reliever Ian Hamilton, who last pitched 10 days ago in Game 2 of the American League Division Series, left Thursday’s game after facing two batters. He walked Lane Thomas to begin the sixth inning and then induced a ground ball from Daniel Schneemann, forcing him to cover first base in a bang-bang play at the bag.
Hamilton threw one warmup pitch after the play that went to the backstop, prompting manager Aaron Boone and a trainer to examine him. He was then pulled from the game with left calf tightness.
The righty reliever missed nearly three months of the regular season due to a lat injury and faced a minor setback during his rehab assignment because of back spasms.
If Hamilton is forced off the roster, Mark Leiter Jr. would likely replace him in the ALCS. Boone stated at the start of the series that if the Yankees had carried 13 pitchers, Leiter would have been included.
The Yankees have indicated that Luke Weaver, Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Tim Hill are their four most trusted relievers, with Hamilton at the top of the next grouping. With the Yankees scheduled to play Friday and Saturday, they may need all the depth in their bullpen.
(Top photo of David Fry: Jason Miller/Getty Images)