CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Guardians do not hit a lot of home runs but they are pests to opposing pitching staffs. They make a lot of contact and run the bases hard. So when they entered the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday in Game 3 of this best-of-five American League division series trailing the Yankees by two runs, they did what they do best.
Facing the Yankees reliever Clarke Schmidt, Amed Rosario, the Guardians shortstop, smacked a one-out single with runners on the corners to bring his team within one run. José Ramírez, the Guardians star third baseman, loaded the bases with a single. Then with two outs, the Guardians right fielder Oscar Gonzalez delivered the winning blow.
With a single slapped up the middle, Gonzalez drove in two runs and stunned the Yankees in a come-from-behind walk-off 6-5 win that produced pandemonium at Progressive Field and gave the Guardians a two-games-to-one advantage. Leading much of the game, the Yankees were now one more loss away from elimination.
With one more win, the Guardians would advance to their first A.L. Championship Series since 2016. Awaiting there would be the Houston Astros, who swept the Seattle Mariners to make their sixth straight A.L.C.S. appearance.
Facing a Guardians lineup that hits for average, Yankees starting pitcher Luis Severino, a strikeout pitcher, sputtered early. He gave up hits to three of the first four batters of the game, including a run-scoring single to Guardians designated hitter Josh Naylor.
When Severino struggled in the second inning against the bottom of the Guardians lineup, Boone stuck with him. Three of the first four batters in the frame notched hits, punctuated by left fielder Steven Kwan’s run-scoring single that gave the Guardians a 2-0 lead. Even the fly outs Severino induced to end the inning were hit hard to the warning track.
Saved by his team’s offense, Severino rewarded Boone’s faith. His command improved. He got quicker outs. He completed five and two-thirds innings, which once felt impossible given his earlier pitching. It helped that his teammates hit the ball hard and far.
After a producing one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history and setting a A.L. record with 62 home runs, Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge entered the postseason with high expectations. But in the first two games of the series, the Guardians pitched him tough and Judge missed the few pitches he normally hit hard. Through his first at-bat in Game 3, Judge was 0 for 9 with eight strikeouts.
That all changed with one mighty swing in the third inning. With the rookie Oswaldo Cabrera on base after a double, Judge stepped to the plate to boos. It was the first time this series that Judge, who was dropped from the leadoff spot to second in the lineup for Game 3, was batting with a runner on base.
Judge fouled off the first pitch from Guardians starting pitcher Triston McKenzie, a 93-mile per hour fastball straight down the middle of the plate that he normally pulverizes. He didn’t chase the next two pitches out of the zone. And when McKenzie threw another fastball in the same location as the first, Judge didn’t miss this time and McKenzie knew the result instantly without looking. Judge sent the ball 449 feet to deep center field to tie the score at 2.
To take the lead, the Yankees again relied on power. Bader, the Yankees center fielder, led off the fifth inning with a single. Two batters later, the rookie Cabrera, with 44 career regular-season games, came up to bat against McKenzie, whose velocity had begun dipping.
With a flick of his quick left-handed swing, Cabrera clobbered a high 91 m.p.h. fastball into the right field seats to give the Yankees a 4-2 lead. Cabrera’s unbridled joy enlivened the Yankees’ dugout. He briefly watched the flight of the ball from home plate before taking a few steps toward first base with the bat in his hand. Cabrera turned toward his teammates, flung the bat high into the air and flexed his arms as he started his trot around the bases.
After Severino ran into trouble in the sixth inning and reliever Lou Trivino coughed up a run to trim the Guardians’ deficit to 4-3, Bader got that run back. He smashed his second home run of the series in the top of the seventh, giving the Yankees a more comfortable margin.
But that quickly evaporated in ninth inning when the Guardians further wore down the Yankees’ depleted bullpen.
