Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m glad Yankees-Guardians was the early game yesterday. I don’t know how I could have slept after that.

In today’s SI:AM:

🫨 Cleveland’s stunning comeback
👋 Tony Bennett is quitting
🤔 Time for the WNBA to dream big

If you looked Game 3 of the ALCS between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians on Thursday and thought, “Wow, I’ve never seen a baseball game like this,” you’re right. There has literally never been a game like this in the history of Major League Baseball.

To recap, the Guardians took a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning and brought in tough setup man Hunter Gaddis to protect the lead. He got the first two outs of the inning, but was pulled after walking Juan Soto so closer Emmanuel Clase could face Aaron Judge. Judge hit a wall-scraping home run to tie the game – the second home run Clase had given up this postseason after allowing two home runs throughout the regular season. Then Giancarlo Stanton Judge followed with a home run of his own to take the lead.

It was a stunning turn of events, but it paled in comparison to what the Guardians did in response. After New York added an insurance run in the top of the ninth, Yankees closer Luke Weaver allowed a two-out double to Lane Thomas in the bottom half of the inning, bringing in pinch hitter Jhonkensy Noel for the tying run. Noel then hit a no-doubt home run, sending the game to extra innings at 5-5. Finally, with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, David Fry hit a walk-off homer off Clay Holmes to give Cleveland a 7-5 victory.

Can you remember the last time you saw a game like this? No, that’s not possible. That’s because it was the first game in MLB history (regular season or postseason) in which four tying or tie-breaking home runs were played with two outs in the eighth inning or later. according to OptaStats.

It would have been a wild way to end a match if it took place on a Wednesday in June. To have this happen in October, to help Cleveland avoid falling into a nearly insurmountable hole in the 3-0 series involving so many of the game’s biggest stars, is nothing short of incredible. There have been many exciting games this season, but none have been as dramatic as this one.

Not convinced? Here are a few more stats on how crazy this game was:

The other aspect of the Guardians’ win that shouldn’t be overlooked is the fact that Cleveland was down 2-0 in the series. Teams that lose the first two games of a seven-game series don’t often come back to win. Only 15 of the 91 teams that dropped the first two games completed the comeback. So even though the odds were already not in Cleveland’s favor, falling behind 3-0 would have essentially been a death sentence. Only one in forty teams has overcome a 3-0 deficit (the Boston Red Sox against the Yankees in the ALCS twenty years ago).

With that in mind, it’s no exaggeration to say that Noel and Fry’s home runs saved the Guardians’ season. Without them the series would have essentially been over. But now? It’s just beginning.

…things I saw last night:

5. Shohei Ohtanis first home run.
4. Mookie Betts’ big night for the Dodgers: 4-for-6 with a homer, a double and four RBIs.
3. The reaction from a room full of eighth-graders from Cleveland to Jhonkensy Noel’s game-tying goal.
2. This side-by-side video from Noel and David Fry almost identical bat flips.
1. The Spanish call of Noel’s homer by Guardians radio announcers Rafa Hernández-Brito and Carlos Baerga.