In a game that felt more like a roller coaster ride than a baseball game, the Yankees moved
within one win from the World Series, taking down the Cleveland Guardians 8-6 in a thrilling
Game 4 victory at the 2024 ALCS.
With the game tied at six entering the top of the ninth, Anthony Rizzo, Anthony Volpe, Alex Verdugo, and Gleyber Torres each came through against Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase to
put New York ahead.
Tommy Kahnle came in, got a shaky save, and put the Yankees up 3-games-to-1 in the series.
On the mound to start the game for Cleveland was 25-year-old Gavin Williams, who was
making his first career start in the postseason, and the Yankees wasted no time welcoming him to October.
Gleyber Torres, as he has many times this postseason, led the game off with a single, which was followed by a two-run home run by Juan Soto, giving the Yankees an early 2-0 lead.
Starting for the Yankees is potential rookie of the year winner Luis Gil, who was making
his first appearance for the Yankees in the postseason. Much like Williams, Gil also allowed a
first-inning run, when a Steven Kwan walk and Kyle Manzard double allowed Jose Ramirez to
drive Kwan home on a sacrifice fly. However, the Yankees didn’t wait long to grow their lead
back to two, as Austin Wells, who has struggled for much of the postseason, hit a towering home run over the right field fence, his first of the postseason.
In the third inning, the Yankees allowed another run on a Josh Naylor single in which he stretched his bat all the way in the opposite batter’s box, flaring the ball into left field and shrinking the Yankees lead to 3-2.
The one-run advantage would hold for much of the game, and both starters exited between
the third and fourth innings. Williams finished the game tossing 2.1 innings, striking out four, and allowing three runs on three hits. Gil pitched four innings, struck out three, walked three
, and allowed two runs on three hits. Which meant that neither starter would be part of the decision in their postseason debut.
The next scoring didn’t come until the top of the sixth when Giancarlo Stanton once again came up big for the Yankees. With Cade Smith on the mound, he allowed Soto to reach
first on a walk before Aaron Judge moved him to second on a single. Jazz Chisholm pushed
them to second and third with a sacrifice bunt, bringing up Stanton with two on and one out.
Instead of intentionally walking him, the Guardians chose to pitch to him, which immediately
backfired, as Stanton parked a three-run homer into the left field bleachers, giving the Yankees a comfortable 6-2 lead, or so they thought.
The Guardians proceeded to score four unanswered runs to tie the game. The first three runs came in the seventh, as much like last night, Clay Holmes, who has been so successful for much of the postseason, struggled. Allowing back-to-back doubles from Ramirez and Naylor made the game 6-5.
In the bottom of the eighth, with Bo Naylor on third and two out, Mark Leiter, who was added to the playoff roster today for the injured Ian Hamilton, got the ground ball he needed to get out of the inning. However, he booted it, and his flip to Rizzo went through his legs, which allowed the Guardians to tie the game at six.
After his uncharacteristic struggles in Game 3, the Guardians went back to Clase for the ninth. But much like Thursday, the Yankees had his number, as Rizzo immediately made up for his mistake at first with a single into right. It was followed by a single by Volpe. With Jon Berti pinch-running for Rizzo and runners on second and third with one out, Verdugo shot a ball to shortstop Brayan Rocchio, who booted the ball, allowing Berti to score the go-ahead run.
One batter later, Torres slapped a single to extend the Yankees lead to 8-6. In the bottom of the ninth, Tommy Kahnle came in. Although he allowed two runners to reach, he retired Bo Naylor and Rocchio to seal the victory for the Yankees.
