On Thursday, the Yankees took a crushing Game 3 loss to the Guardians that probably shaved a couple years off your life. So how did they follow that up? Naturally, by playing one that conservatively probably took a decade off 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 pair of errors, and seemingly endless momentum changes. In the end, Cleveland’s mistakes ended up allowing the Yankees to squeak out a dramatic win. A Guardians ninth-inning error allowed New York to take their lead, after the Bombers’ tired bullpen couldn’t hold on to leads of various different sizes. With a victory, the Yankees are now a 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.

With the Yankees looking to bounce back after the frustrating nature of Thursday’s loss, Juan Soto got them off to the perfect start. The team has often wasted good leadoff moments from Gleyber Torres, but they had another chance at one in Game 4 when Torres singled on Gavin Williams’ first pitch of the game. Soto followed that by working the count a bit before taking an offering out over the right-center field wall, giving the Yankees a quick lead.

Making his playoff debut, Luis Gil showed a glimpse of why he ended up being the Yankees’ last cab off the ranks in the playoff rotation after looking dominant early in the season. He started the game off by walking Steven Kwan and then allowing a double to Kyle Manzardo. With José Ramírez at the plate, there was potential for danger, but he got the six-time All-Star to hit into a sacrifice fly, and retired the next two hitters after that.

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

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

The Yankees began warming people up in the third and continued into the fourth, but they elected to let Gil go one more 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 the Naylor hit just being unfortunate, Gil showed some of the positives and negatives that he exhibited throughout his fascinating rookie campaign. While you would’ve maybe hoped for a bit more considering the bullpen usage of recent games, he kept the Yankees in front without his best stuff, having not pitched in a couple weeks.

Tim Hill replaced Gil for the fifth and got through the top of Cleveland’s order, working around a two-out Ramírez infield single. It was a mostly stress-free inning of relief — something that wouldn’t be taken for granted following Hill’s departure.

The meat of the Yankees’ order was due up in the sixth, and they did their job. Soto started the inning by drawing a walk, and Aaron Judge followed with a single. Jazz Chisholm Jr. came up next and laid down a bunt, moving the two runners into scoring position for the hot Giancarlo Stanton. With the benefit of hindsight, it seemed like the Guardians maybe should’ve put him on, 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 has been absolutely amazing for the Yankees this October, as this was his fourth homer in eight games and third of this ALCS alone.

With a bit more cushion, the Yankees brought in Jake Cousins for his first action of the series in the sixth. He looked pretty good at first — which is solid news after the Yankees had to take Ian Hamilton off the playoff roster due to a calf injury — striking out three, giving up just one two-out single.

Cousins was brought back out for the seventh, but that didn’t go as well. He walked Brayan Rocchio and then allowed a single to Kwan. Manager Aaron Boone then opted to go back to the bullpen and roll the dice with Clay Holmes, who has pitched in every single game this postseason. Up first against Holmes was David Fry, who got him for the walk-off homer yesterday, but Holmes won the battle with a strikeout this time around. Up next, Ramírez then got to Holmes for a double down the line, scoring Rocchio. Naylor followed that with a two-bagger of his own, scoring both runners and getting the Guardians back within a run. Holmes then issued yet another walk, at which point Boone was back out of the dugout to make a second pitching change.

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

Next up after the elder Naylor was the other of Cleveland’s heroes from Game 3: Jhonkensy Noel. On the third pitch of that at-bat, Noel made very loud contact on a ball that appeared headed towards the same area as his homer from Wednesday. Despite an insane misread from the TBS camera man, this time 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 weary ‘pen, Boone had Leiter return for the eighth. But he ran into trouble with a leadoff double from Bo Naylor. While a groundout then moved him over to third, Leiter then got Kwan to hit an infield fly to get on the verge of escaping again. He then got a terrific chance to do so when Fry hit a grounder back to Leiter. After the pitcher fumbled it a bit, his toss to Rizzo at first ended up being a bit low, which the first baseman mishandled:

Fry ended up reaching 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. However for the second-straight day, they fought back against him. Atoning somewhat for his mistake on the game-tying play, Rizzo came up with a single, with Jon Berti then sent in to pinch-run. Volpe then came up big again, singling to move Berti all the way to third and then swiping second. After Clase struck out Wells, Verdugo then hit a grounder. It just so happened that this grounder ended up being pretty well placed, and Rocchio at short had to come in hard to make any sort of play on it:

Rocchio fumbled with the ball as Berti scored to put the Yankees back in front. A Torres single tacked on another much-appreciated insurance run, but the Yanks then ended up leaving the bases loaded on a Chisholm grounder, leaving their lead at just two runs going into the bottom of the ninth.

With Luke Weaver resting, changeup savant Tommy Kahnle was trusted with the ninth. After getting one quick out, Kahnle walked Noel and allowed a single to Giménez, because nothing about this game could ever be easy. However, he bounced back by getting Bo Naylor to fly out. The game was left in the hands of Rocchio, who grounded one to Berti, who was put at second after coming in. He bobbled it for a second, sending gasps throughout the Yankees’ fanbase …

… , but still had enough to time to throw over to beat Rocchio and end the game. After nine innings of some of the wildest baseball you’ll ever see, the Yankees had a 3-1 series lead.

With all that now in the books, the Yankees are now one win away from a trip to the World Series. They can clinch that as early as tomorrow in Game 5 in Cleveland. They’ll turn back to Game 1 starter Carlos Rodón, who will hope to replicate his performance in the Bronx. The Guardians will turn to ace Tanner Bibee on short rest following his very early exit in Game 2. First pitch will come at 8:08pm ET.

Box Score