The Yankees dropped their first game of the ALCS in a 7-5, 10-inning loss to the Guardians.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. One out away. One out away from a 3-0 series lead in the ALCS. That’s what the Yankees were until they weren’t.
After staging an improbable comeback off the so-called best closer in baseball with an Aaron Judge two-run home run, the Yankees then took the lead off that closer when Giancarlo Stanton followed with a home run of his own. The Yankees were six outs away from being a win away from the World Series.
Those six outs became one when Luke Weaver turned a 1-4-3 double play in the ninth. But after a long double high off the tall left-center wall from Lane Thomas, the 23-year-old pinch-hitting rookie Jhonkensy Noel destroyed a 1-0 changeup, sending it deep into the Cleveland night to tie the game. Up two with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the ninth turned into a tie game.
It was a stunning moment. A true moment of disbelief. But the Yankees still had a chance to put the Guardians on the brink of elimination. They would just have to do something they have never done in the Aaron Boone era: win an extra-inning postseason game.
2. They had their chance. They put two on in the 10th, but stranded them both. And once that happened every Yankees fan knew they were in trouble. The only arms left in the bullpen were Clay Holmes, Jake Cousins and Marcus Stroman. And if the bullpen was able to send it to the 11th, Alex Verdugo and Austin Wells would be due up. After failing to win in the 10th, the Yankees’ next best chance of winning would be if the game would last until a 12th inning.
It didn’t.
Holmes got the ball for the 10th and allowed a leadoff single. After retiring the next two batters he threw a sinker that sunk in the middle of the strike zone and David Fry hit it a mile for a two-run, walk-off home run. Like Weaver, Holmes had been so good in the postseason. But unfortunately for the duo, the clock struck midnight on their impressive run over the last two weeks.
“A loss is a loss,” Stanton said. “An L is an L. By one, two, eight, whatever.”
3. Game 3 was a game of reversion. Weaver reverted into the guy from late June to mid-August who was bitten by the long ball. Holmes reverted into the guy who led the league in blown saves and spent the summer creating spectacular meltdowns. Wells continued his reversion into the early-season version of himself striking out on high fastballs yet again in his only two plate appearances. Anthony Volpe, who has looked so shockingly good this October, reverted back into his regular-season self in his 10th-inning plate appearance, chasing pitches out of the zone (something he hadn’t done all postseason until then) with a chance to give the Yankees an extra-inning lead. Anthony Rizzo reverted back into the untrustworthy glove he was from Opening Day through mid-June when he got hurt. Clarke Schmidt reverted back into the pitcher who can’t get lefties out and can’t provide any length. Aaron Judge reverted back into his MVP self with his two-run home run off Clase. Stanton reverted back into his old self by hitting that home run off Clase and by being able to foul off 100-mph fastballs to extend the at-bat to hit the home run. And for all the praise Boone has received this postseason for “pushing the right buttons,” he managed the game like it was the 13th game in 13 day in the middle of June, reverting back into the manager we have grown to know over seven years.
4. To an outsider, Boone’s bullpen decisions were as stunning as Noel’s home run. To Yankees fans who have watched his every move since Opening Day 2018, they were the norm. Going to Tim Mayza in the sixth inning of a one-run game in the postseason? Alarming, but not shocking. Staying with for a second inning after he allowed a run to score? Appalling, but unsurprising. Allowing Mayza to put the leadoff guy on in that second before going to Tommy Kahnle? Irresponsible, but expected. If Boone was willing to use Kahnle in the seventh inning, why didn’t he just let him start the inning clean? Why did he try to steal an out and steal it with Mayza of all pitchers? Thankfully, Kahnle did his job and then some, getting five outs across the seventh and eighth innings by throwing 26 pitches, all of which were changeups.
5. At some point Weaver and Holmes were going to get dinged up. The duo has appeared in all seven postseason games. It’s unsustainable and also unfair to ask them to get stressful, high-leverage outs every single game against the same most feared bats of a series opponent over and over. At some point the Yankees need to win a game that doesn’t have everyone on the edge of their seat up until the final out. But with the offense being so inconsistent and so top heavy and so incapable of hitting with runners in scoring position, there won’t be any easy wins.
6. The Yankees don’t make anything easy with their baserunning either. After taking an early 1-0 lead in the second inning in Game 3 on an unlikely RBI single from Jose Trevino, Trevino’s big hit was undone by his foolish mistake of getting picked off of first base. It didn’t even take two full innings for the Yankees’ idiotic baserunning to rear its ugly head. I think I’ll let the call from John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on the play take it from here:
John: “The throw … and they picked off the runner. How do you like that?
Suzyn: “Again.”
John: “Shortstop runs him back … first baseman makes the tag … Where was Trevino going? I’m amazed. I said they had to play a clean game, already it’s dirty.”
Suzyn: “This has been a problem for the Yankees. Someone’s just not paying attention.”
John: “Oh that’s awful and also because Trevino is really slow. Where is he running to?”
No one makes outs on the bases like the Yankees. In the ninth, Volpe was on first and Alex Verdugo hit a ball into the second-base hole. Volpe rounded second thinking he was going to go first to third with ease, but not thinking that the Gold Glover Andres Gimenez was playing second. Gimenez had kept the ball in the infield and the Guardians had Volpe in a rundown between second and third. Fortunately, Jose Ramirez dropped the ball in the rundown when trying to tag Volpe at third and he ended up being safe. Verdugo was able to reach second on the play and Gleyber Torres followed by sacrifice flying Volpe in to give the Yankees a much-needed insurance run. Or so we thought.
7. The Yankees are going to need more than relying on late-game home run heroics to win. If they are going to be so sloppy on the bases and so sloppy on defense then they are going to need to start getting hits with runners in scoring position. In Game 3, they were another abysmal 1-for-8.
So far in October, the Yankees’ wins have been aided by bases-loaded walks (ALDS Game 1), Stanton heroics (ALDS Game 3), the Kansas City wind (ALDS Game 4), wild pitches (ALCS Game 1) and errors (ALCS Game 2). When their crappy AL Central opponents aren’t booting balls, throwing 57-foot pitches and the Midwest wind isn’t swirling, it hasn’t been enough. The offense hasn’t been good and the starting rotation has been a debacle with just two good starts (ALDS Game 4 and ALCS Game 1) through seven games.
The Yankees still control the series. They are still in a much better place than the Guardians. They have the series lead. They have the better offense. They have the better rotation. If Weaver is compromised then so is Clase. The Yankees have the starting pitching advantage in Game 4.
8. Luis Gil hasn’t started since September 28. He has pitched 11 innings since September 17. Hopefully, the layoff has given him time to rest and improve on the fatigue he was experiencing down the stretch. But on the other end of that hope is the fact that Gil hasn’t done well when pitching after extended layoffs. There’s also the fear he will be so amped up to make his postseason debut that he will overthrow early, miss his spots and issue free passes the way Luis Severino did in the 2017 wild-card game. Even still, Gil is a much better Game 4 option than the Guardians’ Gavin Williams, who also hasn’t pitched since September 22 and has thrown 10 2/3 innings since September 17.
9. The Yankees had created their moment in Game 3 and it slipped away. The type of moment that propels a team to a pennant. The last time the Yankees won the pennant, they had that moment in Game 2 of the ALDS when Alex Rodriguez tied the game in the bottom of the ninth against Joe Nathan before winning on a Mark Teixeira walk-off home run in the 11th. They had a second moment in Game 2 of that season’s ALCS when Rodriguez again came through, hitting a game-tying home run off Brian Fuentes. Let’s hope their moment ends up being Game 4 and that Game 3 doesn’t end up being the Guardians’ moment.
“Thankfully, this wasn’t Game 7,” Rizzo said. “This is a series.”
10. The Yankees can put an end to the Guardians’ and city of Cleveland’s season-saving celebration that is taking place as you’re reading this and will continue all the way until the first pitch of Game 4. The celebration needs to end before the series is tied. Game 4 is the difference between putting the Guardians on the brink and turning the ALCS into a best-of-3. It’s the difference between needing to win one of three to advance to the World Series and needing Carlos Rodon to come up big to avoid leaving Cleveland trailing in the series.
The Yankees were oh so close to being six down with five to go. Instead, it’s still five down with six to go.
Last modified: Oct 22, 2024
