<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2l1nLC_0wBac61700" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2l1nLC_0wBac61700" width="1280" height="826" ><figcaption>David Fry won ALCS Game 3 for the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday night with a two-run, 10th-inning homer off Yankees reliever Clay Holmes. AP</figcaption></figure>CLEVELAND — The Yankees were on the brink of the brink, one strike away from being one win away from the American League pennant.Luke Weaver, their rising star closer, was in trying to do what Emmanuel Clase, the Guardians’ great closer, couldn’t Thursday night in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.The Guardians were down two runs and down to their last out and Lane Thomas hitting with two strikes.One more out and the Yankees would be up 3-games-to-none. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were going to the heroes with back-to-back homers in the eighth off Clase that turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead.Then this epic postseason game that turned the Yankees way in the eighth inning got away from them.With Weaver trying to finish off a four-out save with two outs in the ninth, Thomas doubled to keep it going and pinch-hitter Jhonkeysy Noel blasted a shot to left for a game-tying homer.Stunning.The next inning, it was ditto with Clay Holmes on the mound and the Yankees lost 7-5 in 10 innings on a two-run, walk-off homer by David Fry.Want to bet on MLB?Crazy.“The other team is good, too,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Credit to them. It sucks losing like that, but it was a classic game.”Clase replaced Gaddis with two outs in the Yankees eighth after Juan Soto walked on four pitches to face Judge.This was power vs. power, greatness vs. greatness.Judge won.Down in the count 0-2 and then 1-2, Judge lined a cutter on the outside corner to right field that looked like extra bases off the bat, but it carried and carried and was high enough to bang off the top of the wall and into the stands for a game-tying home run.The Yankees dugout went crazy with this sudden turn of events.Eight pitches later, Stanton’s long at-bat with Clase brought the same result, another stunning home run off the top of the wall and into the stands that emptied the bench, this one to right center on a 1-2 slider that was left over the middle of the plate.Amazingly and incredibly, the Yankees had a 4-3 lead.“We got punched in the teeth there in the eighth and stepped up huge,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.From there, Weaver blew a first save opportunity in nine chances since replacing Holmes as closer in August.Weaver came on in the eighth to put on a two-on, two-out fire, the Yankees got an insurance run in the ninth to make it 5-3 and then the game turned in dramatic fashion again.With two on and nobody out in the Guardians ninth, Thomas doubled.Noel pinch-hit for Daniel Schneemann.“We sent him up to hit a homer,” Vogt said.Noel hit a blast to left on a 1-0 changeup that was gone by a mile for a two-run homer that tied it up again.In the 10th, the Yankees stranded two when Anthony Volpe struck out, then Cleveland won the game.Bo Naylor led off with a single and was bunted to second by Brayan Rocchio.After Steven Kwan hit a comebacker for the second out, Fry hit a 1-2 hanging sinker for a two-run, game-winning homer to left-center field.Game 4 is Friday night in Cleveland.Rookie right-hander Luis Gil, a 15-game winner who hasn’t pitched since Sept. 28, will make his postseason debut for the Yankees on 19 days rest. The Guardians will start righty Gavin Williams, who also has been idle since the regular season.After Judge and Stanton’s homers, the Guardians threatened in the bottom of the eighth, but Weaver replaced Tommy Kahnle with two on and two out and struck out Fry to end the inning.The Yankees added an insurance run in the ninth when Gleyber Torres hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Anthony Volpe, who worked a leadoff walk.Until the eighth inning, the Yankees’ only offensive highlight in Game 3 was Jose Trevino, a surprise starter at catcher, hitting a second-inning grounder past drawn-in first baseman Josh Naylor for an RBI hit in his first at-bat of the postseason.That single off Guardians lefty starter Matthew Boyd that made it a 1-0 game was the Yankees’ last baserunner and hit until the seventh inning.After Trevino’s hit, he was picked off first base with runners on the corners and one down, then Gleyber Torres’ liner to left resulted in an inning-ending out instead of a sacrifice fly. This was the third Yankees baserunner picked off in two games. In Game 2, Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Rizzo were picked off second base in the same inning.The Yankees’ lead lasted until the fourth inning when Kyle Manzardo hit a two-run homer off Clarke Schmidt for a 2-1 Cleveland lead. The Guardians made it 3-1 in the sixth on an RBI single by Andres Giminez in a lefty-on-lefty matchup with Tim Mayza.The Guardians appeared to be home free.They weren’t.Not yet.Not with Judge adding an epic postseason home run to his MVP season and not with Stanton continuing his great October.But the Guardians ended up making it a series after all by trumping Judge and Stanton’s big homers with two of their own.“Amazing game to witness,” Boone said. “That was playoff baseball. Both sides kept coming with haymakers. They outlasted us.”<h2>NOTABLE</h2>-- The Yankees lost reliever Ian Hamilton, who left after facing two batters in the sixth inning with right groin tightness. The righty will get imaging on Friday and possibly be replaced on the active roster by veteran reliever Mark Leiter Jr., who was left off the Yankees’ ALDS and ALCS rosters.-- With the Guardians starting a left-hander, Jon Berti played first base instead of Anthony Rizzo and Trevino caught with struggling rookie Austin Wells sitting.-- Wells struck out pinch-hitting for Trevino in the eighth and whiffed again in the ninth, leaving him 2-for-26 for the postseason and hitless in 20 at-bats in his last five games.-- If the Yankees make it to the World Series, Nestor Cortes has a decent shot to be added to the roster as a reliever. The lefty has been on the injured list since Sept. 25 with a flexor strain, who threw a 15-pitch live BP and 15-pitch pitch bullpen during Wednesday’s off day.-- Clase has allowed seven runs in six postseason innings and allowing five earned runs pitching 74.1 innings in the regular season.-- Boyd’s one-run, five-inning start was the longest by a Guardians starter in eight postseason games this year.-- Austin Hedges’ double to left off Schmidt in the fourth inning broke an 0-for-19 and was the first hit by a Guardians catcher since Sept. 25.<h2>LOOKING AHEAD</h2>Friday: ALCS Game 4. Yankees at Guardians, 8:08 p.m., EST, TBS. RHP Luis Gil (postseason debut) vs. RHP Gavin Williams (postseason debut).Saturday, ALCS Game 5. Yankees at Guardians, 8:08 p.m., EST, TBS. LHP Carlos Rodon (1-1, 4.66) vs. TBA.Randy Miller may be reached at <a href="mailto:%20rmiller@njadvancemedia.com">rmiller@njadvancemedia.com</a>.</div></body>

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Yankees blow it in 9th, lose ALCS classic in 10 crazy innings on Guardians’ walk-off homer

CLEVELAND — The Yankees were on the brink of the brink, one strike away from being one win away from the American League pennant. Luke Weaver, their rising star closer, was in trying to do what Emmanuel Clase, the Guardians’ great closer, couldn’t Thursday night in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

Yankees blow it in 9th, lose ALCS classic in 10 crazy innings on Guardians’ walk-off homer

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