CLEVELAND — The Yankees lost when Aaron Judge homered. They lost when a Judge homer had seemingly eased the whole team’s mounting tension and defibrillated the offense.
They lost when they were about to put themselves one more win away from yet another ALCS showdown against the Astros.
The Judge homer felt like a lucky charm. But the Guardians’ offense is relentless in a jab, jab, jab kind of way. And the Yankees’ spate of relief injuries finally manifested when Clarke Schmidt — not someone inside Aaron Boone’s ever-shrinking circle of bullpen trust — had the ball in his hand and perhaps the Yankees’ season on the line.
Because the Guardians’ rally completed against Schmidt in the ninth inning brought Cleveland a 6-5 triumph. After their 10-inning win in The Bronx on Friday, the Guardians are now leading this Division Series two games to one. Gerrit Cole, on normal rest, will try to save the Yankees’ season on Sunday to get this best-of-five back to New York for a decisive game Monday night.
The Yankees led 5-3 going to the ninth inning. But Wandy Peralta was still pitching. He had gotten the last out in the seventh inning. He went 1-2-3 in the eighth. And now he was back out in the ninth. No Clay Holmes, who had pitched in each of the first two games like Peralta. And like Jonathan Loaisiga, who also had appeared in Game 3.
The absence of Scott Effross and Michael King and Chad Green and Ron Marinaccio was evident in this usage.
And when a Myles Straw blooper fell in front of a lunging Oswaldo Cabrera in left with one out and Steven Kwan followed with a single, Boone signaled for Schmidt. An RBI single by Amed Rosario made it 5-4. Jose Ramirez singled to load the bases. Josh Naylor struck out. Schmidt then got ahead of Oscar Gonzalez 1-2, but Gonzalez lashed a two-run single to center. The Guardians had a two-games-to-one lead.
This had felt like the Yankees game, but not at the beginning. For as Judge goes, so goes the team usually.
And the Yanks opened with two innings Saturday night in that uncomfortable realm of tight and tense. No surprise because contained in those two innings was yet another strikeout by Judge. That made it eight in nine hitless at-bats stretched over two-plus games. His failure was becoming that of the team. The swelling tension around Judge had morphed from the angst of him hitting a 62nd homer to now just getting a hit — and the team was ensnared in the stress.
Meanwhile, the Guardians were doing relentless jabbing at Luis Severino. Extending at-bats. Building up pitch count. Using six hits in the first 10 batters to derive two runs. It was early, but with the feeling of it growing late already. Letting Game 2 slip away Friday in The Bronx had bled right into Game 3. The Guardians were playing their game again — stick and move — and an upset of the Yankees was expanding beyond just a theory.
The Yankees’ counter to jabs has always been the haymaker. And they have the heavyweight champ with the most powerful punch.
Cabrera, having let his swing elongate in his own two-game 0-for-8, five-strikeout playoff malaise, had been dropped to ninth in the order. He doubled with one out. Gleyber Torres lined out. Two away. Triston McKenzie, who had dominated the Yankees over seven one-hit shutout innings on July 3, fell behind Judge 2-1.
In this Division Series, the Guardians had interestingly attacked Judge. If anything, the lefty-swinging Anthony Rizzo was being treated more carefully by the all-righty Cleveland rotation. And McKenzie came with a fastball here. But centered in the middle of the plate — the kind of mistake Judge had spent six months essentially not missing. Judge connected in a way so familiar to his historic regular season — doubt removed about whether it was a homer, just a tad of awe wondering where it would go.
The ball landed 449 feet away in center. The score was tied. But more than that had happened. The Yankees settled down. After nearly being knocked out in the second, Severino went nine-up, nine-down through the third-to-fifth innings. Cabrera hit his own two-run homer. Harrison Bader delivered a solo shot.
The Yankees were lined up to win and hand the ball to Cole to get them again to Houston. But the blows to their bullpen showed up. During the season, the Yankees were 39-12 when Judge homered and seemed on the brink of making that 1-0 in these playoffs.
But the jab, jab, jab of the Guardians defeated the haymakers of the Yankees.