CLEVELAND — For nearly an hour Thursday night, the New York Yankees seemingly overcame an onslaught of sloppy baseball to win the World Series in breathtaking, crowd-silencing, completely bonkers fashion.

After two runs with two outs in the eighth inning against the Cleveland Guardians, the Yankees were tasked with relieving 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 performances in the next two games. Erasing the Yankees’ deficit seemed nearly impossible.

Then Aaron Judge blasted a low line drive that pierced 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 center field wall, creating back-to-back home runs and a one-run New York lead. The Yankees left their dugout in celebration. They had defeated the mighty Clase.

Then a game that bordered on the absurd leapt over the line and gave us one of the most memorable games in recent postseason history: an eventual 7-5 victory in Cleveland in 10 innings.

“That was an unbelievable game on both sides. All the emotions, ups and downs, back and forth, you name it,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “If there is an emotion, we all felt it on both sides.”

Roller-coaster. Heavyweight fight. Insert a cliché here. It was a classic baseball game. Here are the six biggest moments of the game – with the odds of winning before each turn – to illustrate the madness.

Top of the eighth inning, two outs
Cleveland leads 3-1
Probability of winning: 93.2% Cleveland

Moments before Judge’s at-bat against Clase, when Guardians right-hander Hunter Gaddis appeared to throw around Soto. Gaddis, whose 5% walk rate during the regular season ranked 14th among relievers, issued a two-out, four-pitch walk to Soto, and none of the pitches were particularly close. Vogt then replaced Gaddis with Clase.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he didn’t believe Gaddis threw near Soto. The judge said he had “no idea”. Regardless, the series made for a big matchup. Judge vs. Clase. Power versus power. The best hitter in the world against the best reliever in the world.

The collision tilted early on to Clase. The right-hander jumped ahead of Judge with a cutter up the middle that Judge fouled and a cutter further out that he swung through. Judge then hit a 99 mph cutter well off the plate before Clase dotted the outside corner with another 99 mph cutter.

“He just stuck with it,” Stanton said of Judge. “It was unbelievable. It wasn’t a bad throw. It was low and away, on black. And he does what he does.”

What Judge did was run the baseball. He drove 110 miles per hour off the bat and landed 356 yards away, just over the wall, bouncing into the stands as Judge sprinted to first base. Draw.

“I thought it was low,” Judge said. “So, you know, my first thought is, try to get on second base. Hopefully Juan can score or he’ll be on third base. But try to get on second base, because in that situation Big G shows up.”

Top of the eighth inning, two outs
Draw 3-3
Probability of winning: 59.9% Cleveland

Like his teammate, Stanton fell behind 0-2. He fouled a 90 mph slider, swung through a 100 mph cutter and hit a cutter dead center. Two pitches later, he made an error on a 90-mph slider across the plate. Those two pitches stuck with him.

“He was driving in with the cutters and sliders, so it was just a matter of getting one over the plate,” Stanton said. “And I missed a few across the plate, so I was able to get to the third.”

The third was the seventh pitch of the battle, a 90 mph slider that caught too much plate. Stanton struck with an 80-mph swing — the fastest by any player on either side Thursday. He jumped off the bat at 110 mph and was dropped 400 feet from home plate.

“I think I pumped it with the right fist, like I set it on fire,” Boone said. “But you’re in the middle of the game. …You’re kind of stuck with the future. But you definitely feel the energy of a few shots like that.”

And just like that, the Yankees had a lead. It was the first time Clase gave up multiple home runs in a game in 326 appearances, including the postseason. New York was three outs away from winning in its first World Series appearance in 15 years. It was a stunning turn of events. And it had only just begun.

Bottom of the ninth inning, two outs
The Yankees lead 5-3
Odds of winning: 98.5% New York

Luke Weaver, called for a four-out save, had danced out of a two-on, two-out jam in the eighth inning by striking out David Fry. Then, after Anthony Rizzo made an error to start the bottom of the ninth, he launched into a nifty 1-6-3 double play to sap Cleveland’s momentum.

He was one out away from his fourth postseason save of at least four outs. It seemed imminent when he jumped ahead 0-2 over Lane Thomas after the doubles match. But suddenly he lost momentum. The next three throws were uncompetitive and Thomas took them to keep the count going. The sixth pitch of the at bat was a 95 mph fastball and in it Thomas hooked the high wall of left field.

“You get to 0-2 and you just try to do a little too much,” Weaver said. “Thomas has a good at-bat there, and yeah, the moment is starting to get a little big. So I was just trying to take a step back and tonight I didn’t quite get the execution I needed at that moment.”

Bottom of the ninth inning, two outs
The Yankees lead 5-3
Probability of winning: 95.4% New York

After the game, Vogt was clear about his motivation for sending in Jhonkensy Noel to pinch hit Daniel Schneemann: “I mean, he pinch hit to hit a home run,” Vogt said. “That’s why we sent him there.” And boy, did the man they call “Big Christmas” deliver.

After taking another uncompetitive pitch well outside the strike zone, Noel pounced on a cool changeup across the heart of the plate and left no doubt. As soon as he made contact, he smoothly turned his bat to the side to tie the game. Pandemonium rained down around him. He had effectively saved the Guardians’ season, at least for the time being.

“I really felt like I was letting the team down and letting myself down,” Weaver said. “It’s baseball, things like that happen. One twist of an arm and it just feels a little bit devastating. We’re still in a good position. It feels like there’s some momentum, but they earned it. It was a crazy game. The bats were hot and the ball flew out of the park.

Weaver had not given up a home run or multiple runs since September 2 – his last appearance before becoming the Yankees’ primary closer.

“It hurts a little bit more, yeah,” Weaver said. “It hurts even more when I know how hard they work to get the game to where it was. It hurts even more when I know I was 0-2, we’re one pitch away from a big double play. Yeah, it it all stinks.” It hurts more to know how close we were, how big a 3-0 (lead) would be. But that’s life.

Top of the 10th inning, one out
Draw, 5-5
Odds of winning: 50.8% New York

The Yankees quickly threatened to regain the lead when Stanton walked with one out to give Jazz Chisholm Jr. who had walked and singled in his previous two at bats. This time, the Yankees third baseman hit a chopper in the hole at second base, which seemed destined to leak through the infield.

That is until Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez, stretching to his left, somehow grabbed the baseball in shallow right field, turned and made a leaping throw that fell to his backside. It leapt to first baseman Josh Naylor, who stretched to the hilt with his left foot, glancing at first base, to complete the improbable out.

The play, reminiscent of the kind Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar made in his three seasons as Cleveland’s second baseman at the turn of the century, deflated the Yankees’ rally.

“Andrés Giménez is the best infielder in the world,” Vogt said. “He has been, and he will continue to be. He makes plays that amaze us every day, it seems.”

Bottom of the 10th inning, two outs
Draw, 5-5
Probability of winning: 62.7% Cleveland

The night finally ended, at the 3 hour, 52 minute mark, when Cleveland’s Fry launched an errant 1-2 sinker that left Yankees reliever Clay Holmes over the plate and into the seats behind the left field wall.

“I just told God, ‘Hey man, take this,’” Fry said. “It’s a tough game. Just try to have fun. You take the at-bat, you get behind in the count and you just get a pitch in the zone and luckily it goes out.”

According to ESPN Research, the Yankees were 196-1 in their postseason history to that point when leading by multiple runs in the ninth inning or later. Their only other loss in that situation? Game 3 of the 2022 ALDS against… the Guardians.

“We’re supposed to go out there and do our job,” Holmes said. “That’s our job, to go out there and close things out. Our hitters did a great job of putting us in position, and we just didn’t make any pitches. But our expectation is to go out there and put outs.”

It was Fry’s second home run of the postseason and both were huge. The first was a two-run home run in Game 4 of the ALDS against the Detroit Tigers with the Guardians on the brink of elimination. That home run saved the Guardians’ season before they came back to go another round. Only time will tell if Thursday’s performance will do the same.