On Thursday, the Yankees suffered a devastating Game 3 loss to the Guardians that probably cost you a few years of your life. How did they follow up on this? Of course, by playing one that, conservatively speaking, probably cost you a decade of your life.

The box score shows the Yankees beating the Guardians 8-6, scoring two runs in the ninth to break a tie. What happened on the field included 21 hits, 10 walks, 3 home runs, 14 different pitchers, two errors and seemingly endless momentum shifts. In the end, Cleveland’s mistakes led to the Yankees pulling out a dramatic victory. A Guardians error in the ninth inning allowed New York to take the lead after the Bombers’ tired bullpen failed to maintain leads of varying sizes. With a win, the Yankees are now just one win away from their 41st pennant and a trip to the 2024 World Series, but getting there was one of the more adventurous roads you’ll ever experience.

As the Yankees looked to bounce back from Thursday’s frustrating loss, Juan Soto got them off to the perfect start. The team has often wasted good introductory moments from Gleyber Torres, but they had another chance at one in Game 4 when Torres singled off Gavin Williams’ first pitch of the game. Soto then worked the count a bit before launching a charge over the right-center field wall, giving the Yankees a quick lead.

In his playoff debut, Luis Gil gave a glimpse of why he ended up being the Yankees’ last taxi in the playoff rotation after looking dominant early in the season. He started the game by walking Steven Kwan and then allowing a double to Kyle Manzardo. There was potential for danger with José Ramírez at the plate, but he managed to hit the six-time All-Star with a sacrifice fly and then retired the next two batters.

After escaping that jam, the Yankees went on offense again in the second. Austin Wells, who had moved back in the batting order because of his problems, showed signs of life with a solo home run to put the Yankees back ahead by two points.

In the third, Kwan started another Cleveland rally when he led off with a single. With Gil then recovering with two outs in a row, Kwan moved to second, from which he was able to score when Josh Naylor fired a pitch well out of the zone into right field for a score.

The Yankees started warming things up in the third and continued until the fourth, but they opted to let Gil run one more frame. He responded with his best innings of the day, a 1-2-3. In his four frames, Gil allowed two runs on three hits and three walks while recording three strikeouts. While he’s a little slacking on the unfortunate Naylor hit, Gil shared some of the positives and negatives he showed during his fascinating rookie campaign. While one might have hoped for a little more given the bullpen usage in recent games, he kept the Yankees leading the way without his best talent after not pitching in a few weeks.

Tim Hill replaced Gil for the fifth time and moved to the top of Cleveland’s plate, bypassing a two-out infield single by Ramírez. It was a largely stress-free innings of relief – something that was no longer a given after Hill’s departure.

The meat of the Yankees order was supposed to arrive in the sixth game, and they did their job. Soto started the inning with a walk, and Aaron Judge followed with a single. Jazz Chisholm Jr. came out next and laid down a ball that put the two runners in scoring position for the hot Giancarlo Stanton. In retrospect, it seemed to me like maybe the Guardians should have used him, but they didn’t and he made them pay. Stanton launched a three-run blast, giving the Yankees much-needed breathing room.

The DH was absolutely great for the Yankees this October, as this was his fourth home run in eight games and third in this ALCS alone.

With a little more cushion, the Yankees brought in Jake Cousins ​​in the sixth for his first action of the Series. He looked pretty good early on – which is good news after the Yankees had to leave Ian Hamilton off the playoff roster due to a calf injury – by striking out three and giving up just one two-out single.

Cousins ​​was taken out again for the seventh time, but it didn’t go well. He walked Brayan Rocchio and then allowed Kwan a single. Manager Aaron Boone then decided to return to the bullpen and roll the dice with Clay Holmes, who has pitched in every single game this postseason. The first against Holmes was David Fry, who hit him for the walk-off home run yesterday, but this time Holmes won the battle with a strikeout. Next, Ramírez managed to get Holmes to hit a double down the line and score Rocchio. Naylor followed with a two-bagger that scored both runners and brought the Guardians back within one run. Holmes then issued another walk, prompting Boone to come out of the dugout to make a second pitching change.

Boone decided to turn to Mark Leiter Jr., who was terrible for the Yankees after arriving from Chicago at the 2024 trade deadline. He dropped out of the planned playoff lineup and was only activated when Hamilton went down. Leiter’s last appearance was just one day after Gils, on September 29th. Needless to say, watching the ball go to Leiter was stressful for Yankees fans.

Next after the elder Naylor was the other of Cleveland’s Game 3 heroes: Jhonkensy Noel. On the third pitch of that at-bat, Noel made very loud contact with a ball that appeared to be traveling in the same direction as his home run from Wednesday. Despite an insane misinterpretation by the TBS cameraman, this time the ball ended up on the warning track for an out. Leiter then hit Andrés Giménez to end the threat.

Still looking for outs from anyone, anyone in the tired pen, Boone had Leiter come back for the eighth time. But he ran into trouble on a leadoff double by Bo Naylor. Then, while a groundout moved him to third, Leiter got Kwan to hit an infield fly to come close to escaping again. Then he got a great chance to do so when Fry hit a grounder back to Leiter. After the pitcher fumbled a bit, his throw to Rizzo was initially a little low, which the first baseman mishandled:

In the end, Fry made it safely with an infield single and the game was tied.

The Yankees offense was now fighting for its life and had to deal with Emmanuel Clase again. However, they fought him for the second day in a row. Rizzo somewhat made up for his mistake on the game-winning play, allowing a single that sent Jon Berti out for a pinch run. Then Volpe came up big again, moving Berti to third with a single and then moving to second. After Clase Wells struck out, Verdugo hit a grounder. It just so happens that this grounder ended up being pretty well placed and, in short, Rocchio had to attack hard to somehow play it:

Rocchio fumbled the ball as Berti scored, putting the Yankees back in the lead. A Torres single led to another vaunted insurance run, but in the end the Yanks left the bases with a Chisholm grounder, leaving their lead at just two runs through the bottom of the ninth.

With Luke Weaver rested, substitution expert Tommy Kahnle was entrusted with the ninth goal. After a quick throwout, Kahnle went to Noel and allowed a single to Giménez, because nothing about this game could ever be easy. However, he recovered by getting Bo Naylor to fly out. The game remained in the hands of Rocchio, who sent a ball to Berti, who was sent to second after coming on. He left the ball standing for a second, sending the Yankees fan base into an uproar…

…but still had enough time to defeat Rocchio and end the game. After nine innings of the wildest baseball you’ve ever seen, the Yankees had a 3-1 lead.

With everything now in the books, the Yankees are one win away from a trip to the World Series. They can do that as early as tomorrow in Game 5 in Cleveland. They will rely on Game 1 starter Carlos Rodón, who will hope to repeat his performance in the Bronx. The Guardians will turn to Tanner Bibee, who is taking a short break after his very early exit in Game 2. First pitch takes place at 8:08 p.m. ET.

Box score