Getting hits without hard contact played a crucial role in helping the Yankees regain the lead in the ninth. That said, power, and more importantly the power gap between these two teams, proved to be the deciding factor in establishing a 3-1 lead for New York.

When evaluating these two ball clubs, perhaps one of the bigger differences in production and quality between them was their ability to hit the ball consistently. No one knows exactly how a team will react after such a heartbreaking loss as was the case in Game 3. That said, in this particular case, Yankee fans couldn’t ask for a better one as their bats came swinging against the young players. Gavin Williams.

Before two innings were completed, Austin Wells and Juan Soto had both homered against Williams. A few frames later, against Cade Smith, perhaps Cleveland’s most effective reliever this postseason, the man whose entire portfolio of postseason hits has left the Garden at Progressive Field appeared. Giancarlo Stanton blasted a three-run homer in what looked like the dagger as the Yankees took a commanding 6-2 lead at the time.

If Game 3 taught us anything, it’s that no game is ever over until it’s over, and the Guardians made sure to back that up with four unanswered runs in the late innings. Still, those six runs off the long ball kept the Yankees almost always ahead and never behind in this one, maintaining the confidence to create a decisive opportunity in Game 5.

Although the Yankees had a decent amount of baserunners in this game, they didn’t get many opportunities with runners in scoring position, at least not compared to Cleveland. The Yankees went 2-for-6 with RISP and the Guardians hit 14 and scored four hits. Ultimately, when you outscore your opponent three to zero, the overwhelming odds are in your favor.

Even if you evaluate the three guys who went for the Yankees, you have a pretty good idea of ​​the depth of this offense that can hurt you from almost top to bottom, not as top-heavy as some might think. You had one of the company’s stars contribute to Soto getting his second long ball in as many games. While Stanton may be a superstar during the playoffs, at this point in his career he is expected to fall into the second tier of veteran players tasked with beating Soto and Judge. Wells’ potential and regular season prospects had him in a prime spot in the rankings early in the playoffs, and now he was batting just eighth against a right-hander after playing the previous game.

It shows that a significant portion of this lineup are never far from making you pay for a mistake, and that’s exactly what was on display this time. Cleveland has a few of those guys, but they are fewer and farther apart. For context, it wasn’t until the bottom of the seventh that Cleveland got its second extra-base hit of the game.

On the one hand, you have a team with one game with multiple home runs, and that happened the same way the Guardians did in Game 3. On the other hand, you have the powerful Yankees who homered multiple times in all four games of this series . . In a series of seven games so far, it is clear which side benefits most from this.