CLEVELAND — Aaron Boone admitted there were times when he “didn't really know how we were going to get to the finish line.” “Certainly, there may not be a path to 27 outs,” bench coach Brad Ausmus acknowledged.
Boone, Ausmus and pitching coach Matt Blake were as much an improvisational group as the Yankees' dugout leaders. And their little improvisation in the Second City helped bring the Yankees closer to a World Series return in the First City.
Boone never said out loud that he had no idea how the tag team was going to pitch in this match. “But it was in my head.”
The Yankees defeated the relentless Guardians 8-6 in Game 4 of the ALCS and advanced to the end. They did it because Juan Soto, Austin Wells and once again Giancarlo Stanton all went deep and the power bats came out.
And they won because they had an indomitable spirit. They suffered a fist-pumping, gut-wrenching loss in Game 3, when Aaron Judge and Stanton seemed to be able to take a 3-0 lead. It collapsed and the Guardians won in overtime.
And they won Friday in what Coach Boone called “a gritty, tough, winning game, although it wasn't a perfect game.”
Stanton broke the 6-2 lead he created in the 6th inning with a 3-run home run. Mark Leiter Jr. and Anthony Rizzo's team made a mistake in how many mistakes they could make on the same play, and the Guardians tied the game in the eighth inning. And at that moment, with a capacity crowd of 35,263 at Progressive Field and the Yankees on the precipice of another loss and a two-point ALCS tie, they found something.
It's an area that Boone and others have adjusted well enough, and it's also an area where the Guardians' pen is even more fussy than the Yankees' pen.
Judge and Stanton hit a home run Thursday night off Emmanuel Clase, the best relief pitcher in the majors. Stanton hit a three-run home run off Cade Smith, perhaps the best setup man. Then the Yankees took the lead in Game 4 with a two-run blast in the ninth inning from Crase. Clase allowed five earned runs in the regular season and gave up five combined runs in Games 3 and 4.
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But while all that was happening in Game 4, the Yankees were having their own drama. Boone and his staff meet before each game to discuss who can field players and for how much, what the ideal scenario is and what the fire alarms should be in case of disruption. But, as Ausmus said, “It's an imperfect science.”
The Yankees knew they would probably get 75 pitches from Lewis Gil, who hadn't pitched since September 28th. Boone said he was excited that Gill led the Yankees to 3-2 with 12 outs. The Yankees don't often warm up two relief pitchers at the same time, but they did it multiple times on Friday, in part because the Guardians often pinch-hit in an attempt to gain platoon advantage. The Yanks wanted options. At one point, the Yankees were warming up two left-handers for the first time this year. Because if he needed a ground ball to get out of a jam, Boone wanted to go to Tim Mayza.
But he had in mind left-handed pitchers like Steven Kwan, Kyle Manzard (Game 3 hero David Frye would pinch hit for him), switch hitter Jose Ramirez, and Josh Naylor. The hope was that they could get Tim Hill at the top of a large order. That would be ideal. He then went on to score a scoreless fifth goal.
Jake Cousins, who had only appeared in the postseason once, was next and pitched a scoreless sixth inning, and Coach Boone wanted to see if he could “steal some outs” in the seventh inning. . But the first two got there. Boone didn't intend to use Luke Weaver, who played in the Yanks' first seven playoff games and allowed a game-tying homer on Thursday, but he did not intend to use Luke Weaver, who appeared in the Yanks' first seven playoff games and allowed a game-tying home run on Thursday, but added Clay, who played in the Yanks' first seven playoff games and allowed a game-tying home run on Thursday, for the eighth time in eight games after allowing a walk-off. There was no problem in going to Holmes fry the day before. But Holmes couldn't do that, allowing three of four players to reach in a 6-on-5 game.
So Coach Boone turned to Leiter, who had not been on the postseason roster until earlier in the day, to replace the injured Ian Hamilton. He made it through the 7th inning, but in the 8th inning, he made a mistake with Rizzo and allowed a tying run. However, in the 8th inning, with two outs and runners on second base, he struck out Josh Naylor. The Yanks then got two scores from Crase. And Boone could go to Tommy Kahnle. He was never, ever going to use Weaver, so he was going to seal the deal.
With two players winning with one out, and with the exception of Manager Boone warming up Weaver, there was a fine line between discipline to protect his players and desperation to get one step closer to the World Series, and desperation won out. But in the end, so did the Yankees, as Kahnle earned his second save of the year.
This improvisation was enough to bring the Yankees one win away from winning their first American League championship in 15 years.
