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The Yankees lose to the Guardians in ALCS Game 3 and are now focused on getting back on their feet for Game 4

Posted on by Vanessa
The Yankees lose to the Guardians in ALCS Game 3 and are now focused on getting back on their feet for Game 4

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CLEVELAND – Game 3 had become a heavyweight battle, with one stunning hit after another – starting with devastating late home runs by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

“They got the last blow,” Clarke Schmidt said of the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday night in a quiet Yankees clubhouse at Progressive Field.

Schmidt and his teammates were still there as the Guardians – right down to their last hit – came back to life in this AL Championship Series with a stunning 7-5 win in 10 innings.

David Fry's two-run home run off Clay Holmes ended the game and set the Yankees on task; Forget how close you were to a 3-0 lead in this best-of-seven series and win Game 4.

Before Fry's most recent home run exploits in October, pinch-hitter Jhonkensy Noel launched a game-winning home run in the ninth that sounded like a cannon shot downtown.

“It's never the ideal time, especially now,” Stanton said of the escape that forces everyone in road gray to move along quickly. “But there is no choice.”

And here Yankees manager Aaron Boone sees another advantage for his club.

“We had some tough losses that we bounced back from,” Boone said, and that’s “the room that’s been great all year.”

“We won the East, had the best (AL) record and all that, but … we went through some tough stretches,” Boone said. “And these guys come ready every day and can flush it pretty easily.”

The Yankees are tasked with taking on the Guardians in Game 4

Still, one wonders a little about the physical condition of this club heading into Game 4 (8:08 p.m. first pitch) on Friday.

Holmes and Weaver's charmed postseason life took a hit in Game 3, and they are the only Yankees relievers to have worked in all seven postseason games.

Reliever Ian Hamilton was ruled out with left calf problems and will undergo an MRI, and veteran first baseman Anthony Rizzo – who came on late for defense – cost them two baserunners as he plays with broken fingers that are still healing.

Before Carlos Rodon gets the ball here in Game 5, the Yankees send Luis Gil to his first playoff start in Game 4, on 19 days of rest (but he pitched a simulated game, which puts him on the correct schedule).

But you also wonder about the psyche of Cleveland's world-class closer.

One after the other, Judge and Stanton delivered devastating blows to Emmanuel Clase in the eighth inning, armed with a cutter that was nearly unbeatable throughout the regular season.

Clase was more human this October, and Judge followed a two-out, eight-inning, four-pitch walk to Juan Soto with a ball that barely penetrated the right field wall.

While the Yankees were still celebrating the two-strike, 99-mph cutter that Judge blasted 356 feet for a game-winning home run, Stanton gave the go-ahead shot.

“We’ll see him again,” warned Stanton, who fouled two cutters before getting a slider he could drive — over 400 feet to center.

“Kind of a classic game,” Rizzo said, although Judge didn’t elaborate.

“A loss is a loss,” the Yankees captain said. “I can’t think about it, we can’t hang our heads…refocus and get ready for the next game.”

A battle of the bullpens in ALCS Game 3

Weaver had recorded the last of all five of the Yankees' postseason victories and was primed for their sixth.

Then Lane Thomas came from a 2-0 deficit to a full count and blasted a two-out double off the center field wall, giving Cleveland life in the ninth.

Boone had Holmes warmed up and ready, but he felt that Weaver – who took the final out in the eighth – had shown no signs of distress.

“I felt like he was the guy who did it,” Boone said.

“I feel good,” Weaver insisted, complaining most about Thomas’ hit. “Sometimes you have to slow the game down (and) I lacked execution at the moment I needed it.

“But I feel like I’m fine.”

The pitch to Noel wasn't in a good spot, a changeup that slipped a bit.

“I just threw the worst pitch of the trip,” Weaver said. “And he got it.”

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