CLEVELAND – When asked Friday afternoon where Game 3 of the ALCS ranked for him in terms of late drama, general manager Brian Cashman spoke bluntly.

“In the future,” Cashman said.

So the Yankees did the only reasonable thing and flushed it out, even as Game 4 came close to Game 3 as another epic gut punch.

Twenty-four hours after a devastating ten-inning loss, the Yankees picked themselves up and held on for an 8-6 win over the Guardians on Friday night at Progressive Field.

After their loaded bullpen took a 6-2 lead, the Yankees rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth against Emmanuel Clase before Tommy Kahnle scored the final three outs to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead in the ALCS, one victory removed. of advancing to their first World Series since 2009.

A night after Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes gave up two-run homers in the ninth and tenth innings, the Yankees’ bullpen was forced to record 15 outs and barely made it there.

Anthony Rizzo, who flipped Mark Leiter Jr. dropped in the bottom of the eighth inning to allow the tying run to score, led off the top of the ninth with a single off Clase and pinch-run Jon Berti.

Anthony Volpe then singled the other way, putting runners on the corners.

One out later, Alex Verdugo hit a squibber to the shortstop that Brayan Rocchio couldn’t handle cleanly, though Berti would score from third base anyway for the 7-6 lead.

Gleyber Torres then delivered an RBI single for some breathing room as the Yankees got to Clase again.

Giancarlo Stanton’s three-run shot in the sixth inning put the Yankees ahead 6-2 before the lead slowly slipped away.

The Guardians scored three runs off Jake Cousins ​​and Holmes in the seventh inning before tying the score in the eighth off Leiter, who had been added to the roster earlier in the day as an injury replacement for Ian Hamilton.

Leiter got two huge outs to end the seventh inning with the lead intact, but then gave up a leadoff double to Bo Naylor in the eighth.

He got the next two batters in order and looked like he might escape the jam when he got David Fry to hit a comebacker to right of the mound.

But Leiter booted the ball, chased the ball and turned it to Rizzo, who couldn’t catch it as the ball went through his legs, allowing Naylor to score the tying point.

After Luis Gil endured four two-run innings in his first start in nearly three weeks, Tim Hill worked a scoreless fifth inning and Cousins ​​did the same in the sixth.

But Cousins ​​returned for the seventh inning and promptly walked No. 9 hitter Rocchio before Steven Kwan singled to put runners on the corners.

Boone then called on Holmes, who gave up the winning home run to Fry in the 10th inning on Thursday evening and threw for the fourth time in five days on Friday.

Holmes eliminated Fry in a rematch, but then gave up back-to-back doubles to Jose Ramirez and Naylor to put the Guardians up 6-5.

After Holmes walked Lane Thomas to bring the go-ahead run on base, he was relieved by Leiter, whose third pitch to Jhonkensy Noel – who hit the tying home run off Weaver in the ninth inning of Game 3 – looked like it would was. again went to the left field stands.

But the ball died on the warning track and fell into Alex Verdugo’s glove for the second out, before Leiter struck out Andres Gimenez to send the ball to eighth.

A two-run shot by Juan Soto in the first inning and a solo homer by Austin Wells in the second had given the Yankees a 3-1 lead before the Guardians pulled within 3-2 off Gil.