CLEVELAND -- For nearly an hour Thursday night, the New York Yankees had seemingly overcome a bout of sloppy baseball to pull within a win of the World Series in jaw-dropping, crowd-silencing, totally bonkers fashion. Down two runs with two outs in the eighth inning against the Cleveland Guardians , the Yankees were tasked with solving Emmanuel Clase , the best closer in baseball, to give themselves a chance to take a 3-0 lead in the American League Championship Series. In 74 regular-season appearances, the fireballer allowed five earned runs.
The Detroit Tigers got to him once in the AL Division series -- before he shut them down again in multi-inning appearances in the next two games. Erasing the Yankees' deficit appeared next to impossible. Editor's Picks ALCS, NLCS takeaways: Guardians win thriller over Yankees, Dodgers rout Mets 2h ESPN New York, L.
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. Cleveland?! Making the Juan Soto free agency pitch for each LCS team 13h ESPN Passan: Why it's World Series or bust for the Yankees this year 13h Jeff Passan Then Aaron Judge blasted a low line drive that pierced through the air, just over the right-field wall for a tying two-run home run. Two minutes later, Giancarlo Stanton crushed a slider over the wall in center field to make it back-to-back homers and a one-run New York lead.
The Yankees spilled out of their dugout in celebration. They had slayed the mighty Clase. Then, well, a game bordering on the absurd leaped across the line to give us one of the most memorable.
