By Tyler Kepner, Chris Kirschner, Brendan Kuty and Zack Meisel CLEVELAND – For the second night in a row, the New York Yankees scored two runs off Emmanuel Clase , the Cleveland Guardians’ struggling star closer. This time, though, they made the runs stand, taking a thrilling 8-6 victory that gave them a three-games-to-one-lead in the American League Championship Series. Advertisement Clase, who served up two homers in Game 3, came into Game 4 with a 6-6 tie in the top of the ninth.
The Yankees greeted him with singles by Anthony Rizzo and Anthony Volpe , broke the tie on an infield grounder by Alex Verdugo , and added another run on a single by Gleyber Torres . After allowing just five earned runs in the regular season, when he posted a 0.61 ERA, Clase has given up eight in six postseason appearances, with a 10.
29 ERA. The Yankees, meanwhile, gave the night off to their overworked closer, Luke Weaver , and turned to Tommy Kahnle in the ninth for the save. The Yankees built a 6-2 lead through six innings with homers by Juan Soto , Austin Wells and Giancarlo Stanton .
But they lost the lead in the eighth, when Cleveland’s Bo Naylor doubled and scored on a two-out infield single by David Fry off Mark Leiter Jr. , who threw wildly to first for an error. Leiter, who was added to the roster Friday for the injured Ian Hamilton , fanned Josh Naylor on a splitter to end the inning and preserve a 6-6 tie.
Then the Yankees went to work again on Clase, and this time escaped Progre.