<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4BcZh6_0wDXRP3t00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4BcZh6_0wDXRP3t00" width="1210" height="806" ></figure><p>Dear sweet fancy Moses, what an absurd ballgame we just witnessed — and on the heels of one of the more crushing losses in recent Yankees history, too. Objectively, Game 3 of the 2024 American League Championship Series will surely go down as a playoff classic from this decade. As a Yankees fan, I would personally rather think about anything else at the present moment, but if you’re putting on your neutral hat? It rocked.</p><p>The Yankees woke up on Friday looking to put the bad memories of Jhonkensy Noel and David Fry’s clutch homers behind them in a hurry. I’m generally loathe to invoke the Astros, but New York had to do what Houston did almost 20 years ago (yikes) after Albert Pujols absolutely ruined Brad Lidge with one of this century’s most iconic homers. Despite the Pujols bomb, the Cardinals did not, in fact, win that pennant because the Astros shook it off to take the very next game, ending the League Championship Series.</p><p>The comparison isn’t perfect because that Astros victory was the nail in the Cardinals’ coffin, and the Yankees still need one more win. Even with the resurgent Carlos Rodón going in Game 5 and ace Gerrit Cole lined up for a possible Game 6 in the Bronx, this series has demonstrated that no lead is truly safe and that Cleveland has no intention of going down quietly. But getting back to your feet after being punched in the mouth is important, and it doesn’t take a baseball genius to know that the Yankees feel <i>a lot</i> better about leading this series 3-1 rather than sitting dead even at 2-2.</p><p>For a long time tonight, I had no idea how I would be feeling after the final pitch. It seemed like any game outcome was possible, and my heart was thumping like a bass 5 drum, harder than it has in almost any baseball game I’ve watched within the past decade. In tribute to that chaos — and to simply soothe my own stress in the hour after the Yankees nailed down the victory — please enjoy (?) the five* most heart-stopping plays of 2024 ALCS Game 4.</p><p><i>*Yes, weirdly,</i> <i>the play that scored the eventual game-winning run</i> <i>is not included among the five. This is just my pure gut ranking based on how I felt, and while thrilling, it didn’t feel as seismic as the other five. Your mileage may vary!</i></p><h2>5) Clay Holmes Melts Down (Again)</h2><p>Right from the jump, I’m cheating by including two highlights in one spot, but they were essentially side by side in purpose. My reaction was also identical. Yankees skipper Aaron Boone was desperate to find outs in this ballgame with a bullpen stacked with depleted or unattractive arms. So since Holmes only needed eight pitches to lose Game 3 on the Fry walk-off, he came back again when Jake Cousins left runners on first and third to lead off the seventh in a 6-2 ballgame. He got vengeance on Fry with a K before allowing back-to-back doubles to right by José Ramírez and Josh Naylor. In an instant, the Yankees’ lead had fallen to a nail-biting 6-5.</p><p>I’ll even say that I had been feeling good again about Holmes prior to the Fry walk-off in Game 3. He had been dominant since being removed from the closer’s role in early September. But Boone has asked him to pitch in every single game of this postseason so far, and the wear and tear showed in Game 3. Although I understand that pickings were slim for good relief options in Game 4, I just had an awful feeling when Holmes entered. So while these doubles were heart-pounding to an extent, there was also a twinge of resignation: “This <i>would</i> happen to Holmes, right?”</p><p>May he rest in Game 5. Please. I’m begging you, Aaron.</p><h2>4) Non Si Può Stopparlo</h2><p>Similar to how Jon Berti’s go-ahead run in the ninth didn’t make the cut, it’s wild that one of the biggest homers of the Yankees’ 2024 season only ranks fourth here. Giancarlo Stanton has been electric for this entire month, bolstering his already-strong playoff credentials with his best October yet as he strives to make it to the World Series for the first time in his 15-year career. The man won’t stop hitting majestic homers, and not even Cleveland’s intimidating rookie fireman, Cade Smith, was immune to Stanton’s power.</p><p>Smith had made mincemeat of the Yankees multiple times earlier in the series, but even while he faltered prior to Stanton’s at-bat in Game 4, I didn’t envision Stanton taking him deep. He had only surrendered one homer in 84.1 innings combined between the regular season and playoffs in 2024. That came in June, during a game that Cleveland was losing by five. So Stanton taking Smith yard was something special. That dude rocks.</p><h2>3) PFP Is Your Friend</h2><p>I have a ton of sympathy for Mark Leiter Jr. I fully believe that he’s done just about everything he can to try to get himself right since coming over from the Cubs at the 2024 Trade Deadline. It just hasn’t worked out at all, and he understandably got left off the playoff roster until Ian Hamilton’s calf injury forced him back into the picture. As already noted, the Yankees’ bullpen was somewhat cooked going into Game 4, so a Leiter appearance seemed to be a distinct possibility.</p><p>Well, Leiter got thrown into the fire, that’s for sure. We’ll touch on what happened when he relieved Holmes in a second, but we’ll skip into the future for the eighth inning, which briefly made him a pariah. Boone was trying to stretch Leiter to get to the ninth with a lead. Even with few alternatives, was this advisable when Leiter had pitched so little since the end of September and had been hanging curves in the seventh? Probably not, but that’s what happened. Bo Naylor led off with a double and moved to third on a grounder before freezing on a Steven Kwan popup.</p><p>Leiter could have escaped this with the 6-5 lead intact, if he could only retire Fry. He got weak contact, but was unable to field his position on the comebacker. The ball trickled away from Leiter after he deflected it, since he also kicked it a little. That was the first issue. He scrambled over to pick it up and perhaps could have stopped to just try and tag Fry. It wouldn’t have been easy since his momentum was carrying him away from the play, but it was possible. Leiter didn’t, instead trying to quickly throw the ball to Anthony Rizzo at first base. The ball wasn’t caught, and the game was tied; New York’s four-run lead had officially vanished. Yikes.</p><p>It’s true that Rizzo should have caught this ball and rendered Leiter’s shaky defense moot. But if we’re apportioning blame here, the majority goes to Leiter. That can’t happen. Thankfully, Leiter did the kindness of striking out Josh Naylor to keep the game tied. But it was scary!</p><h2>2) Damn You, TBS</h2><p>TBS has been extremely frustrating to watch this postseason. We don’t have to deal with Bob Costas’ soliloquies anymore (the ALCS booth is much better), but we do still have shoddy camerawork afoot. The biggest crime yet involved TBS getting absolutely fooled by Noel’s fly out in the seventh inning after Leiter entered. Yes, it did sound loud off the bat, and yes, he did just clobber a huge homer in Game 3. But you have to be better than this, which immediately made hearts drop and think that Noel had tanked a three-run shot to put Cleveland ahead, 8-6.</p><p>Terrible! These are the times when I miss YES Network the most. You can quibble with some announcers if you’d like, but the behind-the-scenes work is outstanding 99 percent of the time. Troy Benjamin is correct.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true" align="center"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Heart attack angle by the camera work</p>— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) <a href="https://twitter.com/ericstephen/status/1847469546850177393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2024</a><input type="image" src="empty.gif" style="opacity:0" onerror="s=document.createElement(&quot;script&quot;);s.src=&quot;https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js&quot;;document.body.appendChild(s);"></blockquote><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true" align="center"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Send that camera man to the gulag</p>— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ/status/1847469418722230554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 19, 2024</a><input type="image" src="empty.gif" style="opacity:0" onerror="s=document.createElement(&quot;script&quot;);s.src=&quot;https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js&quot;;document.body.appendChild(s);"></blockquote><h2>1) The Final Out, Somehow, Someway</h2><p>Look, the actual answer of what made my heart stop the most is the atrocious work by TBS on the Noel fly out. However, we had a happy ending to this game, so I am ending this on a high note — if not a scary one, as well.</p><p>One day, fans who were too young to watch this game (or just skipped it and became baseball fans later in life) might read the 2024 ALCS Game 4 box score and think that this wacky game ended at least somewhat normally:</p><blockquote><p>Brayan Rocchio grounds out, second baseman Jon Berti to first baseman Oswaldo Cabrera.</p></blockquote><p>They will be sorely mistaken if they do not check the video.</p><p>With one down in the ninth and the Yankees leading, 8-6, Tommy Kahnle walked Noel and allowed a single to Andrés Giménez. One day after breaking Yankees fans’ hearts, Cleveland had a chance to do so again with the tying run on first and the winning run at the plate. Kahnle kept spamming his changeups, though, getting Bo Naylor to fly out before Rocchio hit his grounder to Berti.</p><p>What the box score failed to capture is that Berti briefly bobbled the ball (say that 10 times fast). In a flash, the image of Kwan stepping up with the bases loaded in a walk-off scenario haunted me. Was there, in fact, <i>more</i> magic in Cleveland? The saving grace was that Rocchio is one of Cleveland’s slower baserunners, and Berti capably recovered to throw him out without the play even being close. Phew.</p><p>I’m glad we all survived that. Is it too much to ask for Game 5 to be an stress-free Yankees blowout win? The NLCS has been full of ‘em! Maybe Rodón dazzles again and the Bronx Bombers live up to their name with a whole bunch of dingers? It would certainly help me sleep a lot easier this weekend, that’s for sure.</p></div></body>

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The five most heart-stopping plays of 2024 ALCS Game 4

Dear sweet fancy Moses, what an absurd ballgame we just witnessed — and on the heels of one of the more crushing losses in recent Yankees history, too. Objectively, Game 3 of the 2024 American League Championship Series will surely go down as a playoff classic from this decade. As a Yankees fan, I would personally rather think about anything else at the present moment, but if you’re putting on your neutral hat? It rocked.