Guardians rally for improbable comeback to sink Yankees in Game 3 crusher

CLEVELAND – The first two games of the ALCS lacked for drama. 

The Yankees and Guardians filled the final two innings of Game 3 with more than enough to make up for it. 

After the teams traded haymakers in the form of stunning home runs in the eighth and ninth innings, David Fry delivered the knockout punch with a two-run homer off Clay Holmes in the 10th inning to lift the Guardians to a 7-5 win on Thursday night at Progressive Field. 

Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton hit back-to-back home runs off Emmanuel Clase to put the Yankees ahead 4-3 in the top of the eighth inning.

They even added an insurance run in the top of the ninth, but that only made it more painful when Jhonkensy Noel returned the favor with a game-tying, two-run shot off Luke Weaver in the bottom of the ninth. 

After being one strike away from being one win away from advancing to their first World Series since 2009, the Yankees head into Friday’s Game 4 with a 2-1 series lead. 

After Judge and Stanton’s monstrous swings in the eighth inning, the Yankees tacked on an insurance run in the top of the ninth to take a 5-3 game into the bottom of the frame.

Weaver, pitching for the seventh time in the Yankees’ seventh playoff game, came on to record the final out of the eighth and went 0-2 to Lane Thomas with two outs in the ninth.

Thomas battled back to a full count and doubled before Weaver left a changeup down the middle and Noel clobbered it for a game-tying shot. 

It marked the second straight game in which Weaver has allowed a home run after being dominant for the better part of a month since taking over closing duties. 

For the first time this series, the Yankees allowed the Guardians’ big bad bullpen to get the ball with a lead. It was going as expected until Judge and Stanton left Progressive Field in a stunned silence. 

The Yankees entered the eighth inning trailing, 3-1, with only one hit since the second inning as left-hander Matt Boyd and two relievers mostly shut them down.

Hunter Gaddis got two quick outs before walking Juan Soto on four pitches, at which point the Guardians called on Clase. 

The flame-throwing right-hander got ahead 0-2 on Judge and then, in a 1-2 count, threw him a 99 mph cutter on the outside edge that Judge smoked to right field, just high enough to clear the wall for a two-run home run that tied the game, 3-3. 

Stanton came up next and again fell behind 0-2, but fouled off three pitches and then got a 1-2 slider that he crushed to right-center field for the 4-3 lead as the Yankees spilled out of the dugout in celebration. 

Clase had allowed just two home runs and five earned runs across 74 ⅓ innings during a dominant regular season.

Then he gave up likely season-changing home runs to Judge and Stanton in a matter of minutes Thursday night. 

Through the first five games of the playoffs, Judge was in the midst of another quiet October, batting just 2-for-15 with six walks.

But after crushing a two-run homer for insurance runs in Game 2, he delivered the biggest postseason swing of his career Thursday with his game-tying shot. 

For Stanton, it marked the latest October heroics from the veteran DH, who has three homers in these playoffs. 

Up until the eighth inning, the Yankees were playing another sloppy game that looked like it was going to catch up with them.

Jon Berti, starting at first base for Anthony Rizzo against the lefty Boyd, made a pair of defensive miscues that played a hand in the Guardians scoring a pair of runs.

And Jose Trevino, making his first start of the playoffs for the slumping Austin Wells, delivered an RBI single in the second inning but then got picked off first base to help kill a rally.