CLEVELAND — For most of the postseason, the questions centered around Aaron Judge’s failure to assert himself while the Yankees were winning.

After the worst playoff loss in years, Judge hit one of the biggest home runs of his career.

And it got closer in the game against the top.

But the Yankees squandered consecutive home runs by Judge and Giancarlo Stanton that initially tied the game, then gave them the lead in the bottom of the eighth in a 7-5, 10-inning loss to Cleveland in Game 3 shorten your series lead in the ALCS 2-1.

The home runs were courtesy of Emmanuel Clase, who only allowed two hits in the entire regular season.

“I was just trying to get on base with a single to right,” Judge said of his approach during his game-winning hit. “Especially with Stanton behind me. When a guy like that can do 102 miles an hour, you don’t try to do too much.”

The result was a shot to right-center that bounced over the edge of the fence into the stands for his second home run in as many games after Judge started the postseason just 2-for-17.

“I thought it was too low,” Judge said. “So my first thought was to be at second base for (Stanton).”

Stanton followed with his third home run of the postseason, giving the Yankees a short-lived lead, and rather than being lost in Yankee history, the two sluggers’ heroics were wasted as Luke Weaver gave up a two-run one-run shot to Jhonkensy Noel in the bottom in the ninth period, which tied the game, and Clay Holmes allowed David Fry to score the winning goal in the tenth period.

Judge’s blast followed a walk from Hunter Gaddis to Juan Soto, who brought in Clase.

“He’s the best closer in the game for a reason,” Judge said of Clase.

Not good enough on Thursday.

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“Aaron Judge is one of the best hitters on the planet,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “It was fun to watch the match. Like I said, I wish it would have gone differently, but we’re lucky we got this one and we’ll be ready to go (Friday).”

And Vogt said he hasn’t lost faith in Clase, who also struggled in the ALDS against Detroit.

“Emmanuel was perfect,” Vogt said. “We couldn’t have asked for anything better from Emmanuel all year and he’ll be right back out there on the ninth night (Friday). “He’s human.”