On Thursday, the Yankees took a crushing Game 3 loss to the Guardians, which probably shaved a few years off your life. So how did they follow that up? Of course, by playing one that, conservatively speaking, probably took a decade of your life.

The box score shows the Yankees beating the Guardians 8–6, scoring two runs in the ninth to break a tie. What happened on the field included 21 hits, 10 walks, 3 home runs, 14 different pitchers, a few errors and seemingly endless momentum shifts. Ultimately, Cleveland’s mistakes allowed the Yankees to pull out a dramatic victory. A Guardians error in the ninth inning allowed New York to take the lead after the Bombers’ tired bullpen failed to hold a lead of varying sizes. With a win, the Yankees are now one win away from their 41st pennant and a trip to the 2024 World Series, but the saga to get there was one of the more adventurous paths you’ll ever see.

As the Yankees looked to bounce back from the frustrating nature of Thursday’s loss, Juan Soto provided the perfect start. The team has often squandered good opening moments from Gleyber Torres, but they got another chance at one in Game 4 when Torres singled on Gavin Williams’ first pitch of the game. Soto followed that by counting a bit before making a sacrifice over the right-center field wall, giving the Yankees a quick lead.

In his playoff debut, Luis Gil showed a glimpse of why he was ultimately the Yankees’ last taxi in the playoff rotation after looking dominant early in the season. He started the game by walking Steven Kwan and then allowed a double to Kyle Manzardo. With José Ramírez at the plate there was potential danger, but he got the six-time All-Star on a sacrifice fly and then retired the next two batters.

After escaping that jam, the Yankees got some more offense in the second. Austin Wells, who had been moved down the batting order due to his struggles, showed some signs of life with a solo homer, putting the Yankees back up by two.

In the third, Kwan started another rally in Cleveland when he led off with a single. While Gil then rebounded with two consecutive outs, Kwan stole second, from where he was able to score when Josh Naylor poked a pitch well out of the zone into right field for a hit.

The Yankees started to warm people up in the third and continued into the fourth, but they elected to let Gil go for another frame. He responded with his best inning of the day, going 1-2-3. In his four frames, Gil allowed two runs on three hits and three walks, striking out three. While he gets some slack for Naylor’s hit simply because he was unlucky, Gil showed some of the positives and negatives he put on display during his fascinating rookie campaign. While you might have hoped for a little more given the bullpen usage in recent games, he kept the Yankees in front without his best assets after not pitching in a few weeks.

Tim Hill replaced Gil for the fifth and came through the top of Cleveland’s order, avoiding a two-out Ramírez infield single. It was a largely stress-free inning of relief – something that wouldn’t be taken for granted after Hill’s departure.

The meat of the Yankees’ order had to be delivered in the sixth, and they did their job. Soto led off the inning with a walk, and Aaron Judge followed with a single. Jazz Chisholm Jr. came next and laid down a bunt, putting the two runners in scoring position for the hot Giancarlo Stanton. In retrospect, it seems like maybe the Guardians should have turned him in, but they didn’t and he made them pay. Stanton launched a three-run blast, giving the Yankees some much-needed breathing room.

The DH was absolutely stellar for the Yankees in October, as this was his fourth home run in eight games and third of this ALCS alone.

With a little more cushion, the Yankees brought in Jake Cousins ​​for his first play of the series in the sixth. He looked pretty good initially — which is solid news after the Yankees had to cut Ian Hamilton from the playoff roster due to a calf injury — and struck out three, giving up just one two-out single.

Cousins ​​was brought back for the seventh, but that didn’t go so well. He walked Brayan Rocchio and then allowed a single to Kwan. Manager Aaron Boone then opted to move back to the bullpen and roll the dice with Clay Holmes, who has appeared in every game this postseason. The first against Holmes was David Fry, who caught him for the walk-off homer yesterday, but Holmes won the battle this time with a strikeout. Hereafter, Ramírez reached Holmes for a double down the line and Rocchio scored. Naylor followed that with a two-bagger of his own, scoring both runners and bringing the Guardians back within a run. Holmes then walked again, after which Boone came out of the dugout again to make a second pitching change.

Boone decided on Mark Leiter Jr. who was terrible for the Yankees after coming over from Chicago at the 2024 Trade Deadline. He threw his way off the projected playoff roster and was only activated when Hamilton went down. Leiter’s last appearance was just one day after Gil’s, on September 29. Needless to say, it was stressful for Yankees fans to see the ball go to Leiter.

Next up after the elder Naylor was Cleveland’s other hero from Game 3: Jhonkensy Noel. On the third pitch of that at bat, Noel made very loud contact on a ball that appeared to be headed toward the same area as his home run from Wednesday. This time, despite a crazy misread from the TBS cameraman, the ball died on the warning track for an out. Leiter then struck out Andrés Giménez to end the threat.

Still looking for outs from someone, anyone in the tired pen, Boone brought Leiter back for the eighth. But he ran into trouble with a leadoff double by Bo Naylor. While a groundout then moved him to third base, Leiter got Kwan to hit an infield fly, setting him up for another escape. He then got a great opportunity when Fry grounded back to Leiter. After the pitcher fumbled a bit, his toss to Rizzo initially came out a bit low, which the first baseman mishandled:

Fry finally reached base safely with an infield single and the game was tied.

Now fighting for their lives, the Yankees offense was tasked with dealing with Emmanuel Clase once again. But for the second day in a row, they fought back against him. Rizzo somewhat made up for his mistake on the tying play, coming up with a single and sending Jon Berti in for a pinch run. Volpe then came up big again, with a single to move Berti all the way to third base and then swipe to second. After Clase struck out Wells, Verdugo grounded out. As luck would have it, this grounder was quite well placed, and Rocchio had to come in hard shortly afterwards to make any action on it:

Rocchio fumbled the ball as Berti scored to give the Yankees the lead again. A Torres single provided another highly regarded insurance run, but the Yanks ultimately left the bases loaded on a Chisholm grounder, leaving their lead at just two runs in the bottom of the ninth.

While Luke Weaver rested, substitute savant Tommy Kahnle was entrusted with the ninth. After getting one quick out, Kahnle walked Noel and allowed a single to Giménez, as nothing about this game could ever be easy. However, he bounced back by getting Bo Naylor to fly out. The match was left to Rocchio, who hit one to Berti, who was put on second after entering. He left it for a second, causing the Yankees fan base to gasp…

… , but still had enough time to defeat Rocchio and end the match. After nine innings of the wildest baseball you will ever see, the Yankees had a 3-1 series lead.

With all that in the books, the Yankees are now one win away from a trip to the World Series. They can accomplish that as soon as tomorrow in Game 5 in Cleveland. They return Game 1 starter Carlos Rodón, who hopes to replicate his performance in the Bronx. The Guardians will transition to ace Tanner Bibee after a short rest following his very early exit in Game 2. First pitch will take place at 8:08 PM ET.

Box score