They were the home office in October while baseball was being played in October. They have captured so many moments, so many snapshots, between the pages of sports' most exclusive scrapbook.
Well, it happened again in real time. The Yankees were upset. Cleveland was trailing 3-1 in the top of the 8th inning when closer Emmanuel Clase threw a 99 mph dart into the black dot. Progressive Field was so loud that the roar echoed all the way to the Cuyahoga River. He made two fast breaks to Aaron Judge. Judge took one from the corner.
after that …
“Oh, my gosh,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.
Oh, sure. The judge's tracking device was never more than 20 feet off the ground. There was no need for that. The ball went just over the right field fence. The stadium fell silent. The Yankees dugout exploded. And here's the crazy thing. It was just a warm-up. Because a few minutes later, for some inexplicable reason, Crace gave up a cutter to Giancarlo Stanton, who was at bat. He threw a slider. I hung it.
“And Big G got it,” Aaron Boone would say.
Now they were choosing something more powerful than “Oh, man” across the progressive field. It was 4-3, Yankees. By the bottom of the 9th inning, it was 5-3. The Mets have built a cottage industry month after month based on exactly this kind of drama. But the Yankees have been doing this since Calvin Coolidge was president.
Now they've done it again.
The Guardians were depressed. they were dead. Their trenches were morgues and their stadiums were libraries. Luke Weaver — the Krase version of the Yankees — had two outs and no outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Lane Thomas hit the left wall. For local residents, it felt like the worst kind of bullying.
And then Johnkensie Noel stepped up to bat. His nickname is Big Christmas. And under any tree in Northeast Ohio, there could be no better gift than the one he delivered in the dark darkness of this Cleveland night.
And if you listen closely, you can hear the commotion on the Jersey Turnpike. It was 5 on 5. It seemed impossible. It felt unreal. But soon the 10th was over. Soon, former Mets forward Andres Jimenez stole a hit from Jazz Chisholm, forcing the Yankees into a pinch on first and third base with one out and putting on one of the most breathtaking plays I've ever seen.
And soon, David Frye was at bat.
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Frye hit a home run in the final minute of the game last week, ensuring the Yankees were in Cleveland and not Detroit that night. Frye had initially been taken out of the lineup by Vogt in favor of Kyle Manzardo, but now, in the bottom of the 10th inning, Frye was staring at Clay Holmes, who was on third base with two outs, looking for a ball he could hit.
“And I got a ball that I could drive,” he said.
Upon landing, Progressive Field's spars and struts rattled. When we landed, the Guardians had won 7-5, cut the Yankees' lead to 2-1 in this best-of-seven American League Championship Series, and were administering CPR to the entire city and its baseball season.
“It was fun,” Frye said.
It was for him, for his jubilant teammates and for the fans who didn't want to leave Progressive Field. For the Yankees? One day, they too may be grateful for the fact that they participated in a game like this. For now, they were as surprised as you were by what they saw. From depression to elation to devastation. Even Cyclone isn't that nerve-wracking a roller coaster.
“It's always like this in the playoffs, the ups and downs,” Judge said. “Great at-bat after great at-bat by both teams. It was a back-and-forth battle, two teams with good records chasing each other. They were able to turn it around with one big swing at the end.”
he shook his head. Probably not the first time. Certainly not the last.
“I wish we were on the other side of it,” he said.
Their opponent was the Guardians, and from the moment he stepped on home plate, Frye was already talking about Game 4 and how he was going to do his best in this moment to extend a series that many already had in mind.
“Whenever someone thinks we can't do it, we know we can,” he said.
“The other team is a pretty good team, too,” Boone said.
And Rizzo: “If you watch it as a fan, it's a great baseball game.”
Especially if you're a team stunned in the loser's clubhouse, listening to the sound of Jamboree crashing through the walls, a celebration where you would have bet your life would be played within these walls. Of course, the Yankees will still be fine. They still have a long way to go. They're still the better team.
“We'll be ready for tomorrow,” Boone said.
He said that several times. That's mainly because he believes it. If not, there's also a reason why, if the Guardians had an encore in mind, what they felt Thursday night would feel like prom by comparison.
