CLEVELAND — For the first seven innings of ALCS Game 3 between the Yankees and Guardians, Cleveland’s tried-and-true method for victory was proceeding as planned.
After Alex Cobb and Tanner Bibee combined to complete four innings as the Guardians’ starting pitchers for Games 1 and 2, veteran lefty Matthew Boyd delivered five solid frames, limiting New York to just one run on two hits. In the bottom of the third, rookie Kyle Manzardo supplied the Guardians their first lead of the series, blasting a two-run homer off Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt to make it 2-1. The Guardians tacked on another run in the sixth against the under-used underbelly of the Yankees bullpen.
For seven innings, little about the affair felt unfamiliar. Sure, there were some unusual moments along the way — Jose Trevino’s first RBI since Sept. 3, Austin Hedges recording an extra-base hit, some Jon Berti defensive adventures at first base — but Cleveland entered the final stages of Game 3 in a position it held so many times over the past six months: with a narrow lead and four of baseball’s best relievers ready to roll. Cade Smith, Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis and, of course, Emmanuel Clase would be dispatched by manager Stephen Vogt in some order to secure the game’s final 12 outs.
First came Smith to face Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the sixth. It took 10 pitches for the remarkable rookie to dispose of one of the most imposing hearts of the order constructed in recent baseball memory. Nine outs to go.
The lefty Herrin followed and worked around some traffic for a scoreless seventh. Six outs to go.
In came Gaddis for the eighth. The mountain man of a right-hander struck out Austin Wells and got Gleyber Torres to ground out. Four outs to go, with Soto striding to the plate.
It was at this point that Game 3 ceased resembling anything remotely routine. For the next 75 minutes — from the moment Soto stepped into the box with two outs in the eighth until David Fry won the game 7-5 with a walk-off home run in the 10th inning — chaos reigned.
Gaddis sprayed four pitches nowhere near the zone, and Soto took his base. Up came Judge as the tying run, and in came Clase for the four-out save. It was 10 days earlier on this same mound that Clase had faltered in stunning fashion, allowing a go-ahead home run to Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter in an ALDS Game 2 loss. Clase and Cleveland rallied from that rare misstep, with the closer collecting two more saves en route to…