CLEVELAND – Following his collapse in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase posted a video to his Instagram showing off his past accolades while wearing rings from his three All-Star appearances.

With that post, he signaled to the baseball world that the New York Yankees had shaken him up. Clase was so upset that he felt the need to remind everyone of his past glory by presenting trophies from seasons ago. But what he learned Friday is that none of that mattered.

Mariano Rivera, he’s not.

For the second night in a row, the Yankees took advantage of Clase’s struggles. Anthony Rizzo and Anthony Volpe led off the ninth inning with back-to-back singles. Alex Verdugo made just enough contact on a softly hit grounder to yield a run. Gleyber Torres then added an insurance run with an RBI single. When Clase’s disastrous ninth inning ended, he had given up three hits, one walk and two runs.

The Yankees won 8-6 to take a 3-1 lead over the Guardians, moving one win away from their first World Series berth since 2009.

“That’s what the Yankees do really well,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said of his team’s at-bats against Clase. “They approach your pitchers great, and when they get a ball over the middle, they don’t miss it.”

Juan Soto certainly didn’t miss his throw in the first inning. While Clase squandered his save chance on Thursday, the Guardians still managed to win on a walk-off home run by David Fry. If there was any doubt about a lingering hangover from the drama of Game 3, only two batters were pushed out of Game 4.

Soto crushed a two-run home run off Cleveland’s starting pitcher, Gavin Williams, to immediately give the Yankees a 2–0 lead. Before the game, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman noted that Game 3 belonged “in the s——.”

His team quickly washed away that sentiment three minutes into the night. Here’s what the 2024 Yankees did better than in previous years.

They could have folded during their midsummer swoon and settled for a wild card spot, but instead they kept the pressure on the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East. They could have succumbed to outside calls to replace struggling veterans, most notably Verdugo, but manager Aaron Boone continued to believe in his players when no one from the outside did.

Fittingly, Verdugo’s contact-oriented approach against Clase was just enough to drive into the lead. Boone had confidently declared that Clay Holmes would pull off a big win for the Yankees in the postseason, and he did, despite being exhausted from pitching in every game in October, leading to back-to-back nights of tough games. But the Yankees might not have gotten this far without Holmes’ dominance.

The last two nights may not have been the most aesthetically pleasing of games, but how many times have Yankees fans witnessed their team fail to find a way to win in similar situations? Game 3 starter Clarke Schmidt noticed one key difference this year: the camaraderie in the locker room. More than ever he felt like everyone was pulling together. Torres echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that egos have been put aside. It’s no coincidence that the Yankees lead all AL postseason teams in walks.

Game 4 perfectly summed up what this season has been like for the Yankees. They needed their supporting cast to step up when it mattered most. Mark Leiter Jr., who was not on the ALCS roster until Friday afternoon, delivered five crucial outs. Austin Wells, mired in deep crisis since September, hit a solo home run and navigated the revolving door of bullpen arms to secure the victory. Luis Gil, who came in for Gerrit Cole early in the season, pitched four innings and allowed only two runs.

When they had to use their power, the Yankees’ stars delivered. In addition to his two-run home run, Soto made a leaping catch on a sharply hit ball by Fry in the fifth inning, preventing any potential pressure on the bullpen. Giancarlo Stanton, the Mr. October of this generation, continued his postseason dominance by smashing a three-run homer off Guardians reliever Cade Smith, extending the Yankees’ lead to 6-2. That was Stanton’s 15th career postseason home run with the Yankees, tying him for fourth all-time with Babe Ruth and Aaron Judge. Boone needed just two words to describe Stanton’s performance in October.

“Just special,” Boone said.

The Yankees came agonizingly close to the World Series in 2017, when they fell in a Game 7 to the Houston Astros. Only Judge and Tommy Kahnle remain from that squad, but most of this roster carries the weight of past disappointments. Aside from Rizzo and Soto, who have World Series rings with other organizations, every player knows the sting of a season cut short. That shared experience is why they approach what lies ahead with relative calm.

In 2009, after the Los Angeles Lakers jumped to a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals, a reporter asked Kobe Bryant why he seemed unhappy. Fifteen years later, the Yankees repeated Bryant’s famous three-word mantra in the clubhouse in several ways on Friday night: “Job ain’t done yet.”

“It feels like nothing until we get it done,” Stanton said. “As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t done anything. We are enjoying this for now, but we have to finish it (Saturday) and move on to the next one.”

(Photo of Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge celebrating: Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)