Yankees blow four-run lead, then score two in ninth to take 3-1 ALCS lead over Guardians, move one win from World Series berth

CLEVELAND — The Yankees and Guardians traded "haymakers,'' in the words of Aaron Boone, on Thursday night in a classic Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

All of those blows — two homers apiece by the clubs from the eighth through 10th innings — came off overtaxed relievers running on fumes.

A similar script played out Friday night, but despite blowing a four-run lead, the Yankees survived this time, again getting to Emmanuel Clase and scoring two runs in the ninth inning in an 8-6 victory in front of 35,263 at Progressive Field.

That gave them a three-games-to-one lead in the series and put them one win away from their first World Series appearance since 2009. Lefthander Carlos Rodon, terrific in a Game 1 victory, will start Game 5 on Saturday night with a chance to clinch the pennant.

Anthony Rizzo, who made yet another poor defensive play in the eighth that allowed the Guardians to tie the score at 6-6, led off the ninth with a single against Clase, who allowed back-to-back homers by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the eighth inning Thursday night.

Jon Berti pinch ran for Rizzo and went to third on a single by Anthony Volpe, who stole second. Austin Wells, who had homered in the second, struck out, but with the infield in, Alex Verdugo hit a soft grounder to short that Brayan Rocchio booted for an error. Berti scored for a 7-6 lead and Gleyber Torres smacked an RBI single to center for the same two-run advantage the Yankees took into the bottom of the ninth on Thursday night.

Tommy Kahnle, who pitched 1 2/3 innings the night before, struck out Lane Thomas looking to begin the ninth but walked Jhonkensy Noel, who had tied Game 3 with a two-out, two-run homer off Luke Weaver in the ninth. Andres Gimenez flared a single to right, but  Kahnle got Bo Naylor to fly softly to center and Rocchio to ground to second to end a game  that was nothing short of bizarre in the late innings.

Again.

After a two-run homer by Juan Soto in the first inning, a solo shot by Austin Wells in the second and a three-run blast by  Stanton in the sixth gave the Yankees a 6-2 lead, they  brought a 6-5 advantage into the eighth with Mark Leiter Jr. on the mound. Leiter, who was not on the roster for either the ALDS or the ALCS, replaced Ian Hamilton earlier Friday after Hamilton suffered a right calf strain in Game 3.

Bo Naylor led off with a line-drive double down the rightfield line and went to third on a grounder to short by Rocchio, but Steven Kwan popped to second for the second out. Leiter got David Fry to bounce one back to the mound, but he  couldn’t control the ball, chased it toward the first-base line and eventually made an awkward scoop to Rizzo at first. Rizzo, trying to make a bread-basket catch,  dropped the ball, which  tied it at 6-6. Leiter was charged with an error.

But things had really began to unravel for the Yankees in the seventh.

Jake Cousins pitched a scoreless sixth to protect a 6-2 lead but  walked Rocchio to start the seventh and allowed a single by Kwan. In came Clay Holmes, who struck out Fry looking but allowed an RBI double by Jose Ramirez that made it 6-3. Josh Naylor hit a two-run double into the gap in right-center to bring the Guardians within 6-5, and after the clearly gassed Holmes walked Thomas, Boone brought in Leiter.

Cleveland sent up Noel to pinch hit and he caught a 1-and-1 sweeper flush, prompting a guttural roar similar to the one the night before when he tied it in the ninth. It quickly died, though, as his drive was caught at the base of the leftfield wall by Verdugo. Leiter struck out Gimenez to end the inning.

The Yankees jumped on Gavin Williams, pitching in his first game since Sept. 22, and five pitches in, they had a two-run lead.

Torres punched  a 99-mph fastball to right for a leadoff single on Williams' first pitch and Soto got ahead 3-and-1 before tattooing a 98-mph fastball 414 feet to right-center for a 2-0 lead.

The Guardians cut that deficit in half in the bottom half against Luis Gil, who allowed two runs, three hits and three walks in four innings.

Wells, dropped to eighth in the order as he entered Friday 2-for-26 with 12 strikeouts in this postseason,  hit a 407-foot homer to right-center with two outs in the second to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead.

Kwan led off the third with a single and scored with two outs on Josh Naylor's bloop single to left to make it 3-2.