CLEVELAND – When asked Friday afternoon where he ranked Game 3 of the ALCS in terms of late-game drama, general manager Brian Cashman was blunt.

“In the shit,” Cashman said.

So the Yankees did the only sensible thing and crushed the ball, even though Game 4 was about to join Game 3 as another epic punch in the gut.

Twenty-four hours after suffering a crushing defeat in ten innings, the Yankees entered Friday night’s 8-6 loss to the Guardians at Progressive Field, fighting for their lives.

After their loaded bullpen squandered a 6-2 lead, the Yankees rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth against Emmanuel Clase before Tommy Kahnle secured the final three outs and gave the Yankees a 3-3 road win in the ALCS. 1 lead from advancing to their first World Series since 2009.

One night after Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes gave up two-run homers in the ninth and 10th innings, the Yankees’ bullpen had 15 outs and barely managed it.

Anthony Rizzo, who scored on a flip by Mark Leiter Jr. that allowed the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning, led off the bottom of the ninth inning on a single by Clase and was pinch-run by Jon Berti.

Anthony Volpe then hit a single the other way to put runners on the corners.

One out later, Alex Verdugo hit a squibber to shortstop that Brayan Rocchio couldn’t handle cleanly, although Berti would score both ways from third for the 7-6 lead.

Gleyber Torres then provided a little more breathing room with an RBI single as the Yankees reached Clase again.

Giancarlo Stanton’s three-run pitch in the sixth inning gave the Yankees a 6-2 lead before the lead slowly dwindled.

The Guardians scored three runs in the seventh inning against Jake Cousins ​​and Holmes before tying the score in the eighth inning against Leiter, who was added to the roster earlier in the day to replace Ian Hamilton due to injury.

Leiter got two big outs to end the seventh inning with the lead intact, but then gave up a leadoff double to Bo Naylor in the eighth inning.

He retired the next two batters and looked like he was escaping the jam when he got David Fry to hit a comebacker to right of the mound.

But Leiter launched the ball, chased after the ball and threw it to Rizzo, who couldn’t catch it as the ball went through his legs, allowing Naylor to equalize.

After Luis Gil went four innings of two-run ball in his first start in nearly three weeks, Tim Hill pitched a scoreless hit in the fifth inning and Cousins ​​did the same in the sixth.

But Cousins ​​came out again in the seventh inning and promptly walked No. 9 hitter Rocchio before Steven Kwan singled to put runners on the corners.

Boone then challenged Holmes, who gave up the game-winning home run to Fry in the 10th inning on Thursday night and pitched for the fourth time in five days on Friday.

Holmes beat Fry in a rematch but then gave up back-to-back doubles to Jose Ramirez and Naylor, bringing the Guardians to 6-5.

After Holmes walked to Lane Thomas for the go-ahead run on base, he was relieved by Leiter, whose third pitch to Jhonkensy Noel – who hit the game-winning home run off Weaver in the ninth inning of Game 3 – looked like it was it would make its way back to the left stand.

But it died on the warning track and fell into the hands of Alex Verdugo for the second time before leader Andres Gimenez picked it off and sent it out for the eighth time.

A two-run pitch by Juan Soto in the first inning and a solo home run by Austin Wells in the second had given the Yankees a 3-1 lead before the Guardians got within Gil’s lead, 3-2.