CLEVELAND — Just the thought of facing the Astros again in the ALCS caused the Yankees to collapse Saturday night.
Two outs away from winning Game 3 of the ALDS against the Guardians, the Yankees bullpen faltered in the bottom of the ninth and gave up three runs in a 6-5 loss, and now the Yankees must win Game 4 at Progressive Field on Sunday to keep their season alive.
With the Astros having just advanced to the ALCS with their win over the Mariners, the Yankees had a two-run lead entering the ninth inning.
After Wandy Peralta got Luke Maile for the first out, and with Clay Holmes apparently unavailable, Myles Straw dumped a hit into left off Peralta that allowed Straw to take second when Isiah Kiner-Falefa threw to third instead of second.
Steven Kwan singled to left to put runners on the corners and the Yankees turned to Clarke Schmidt.
Schmidt allowed an RBI single to Amed Rosario and Jose Ramirez reached on an infield hit to load the bases for Josh Naylor.
Schmidt recovered and got Naylor swinging.
Oscar Gonzalez came up and hit a two-run single up the middle to win it and set off pandemonium in Cleveland. The Yankees had been 167-0 in postseason history when leading by multiple runs entering the ninth inning, according to ESPN.
Aaron Judge got the Yankees started by snapping his 0-for-9 streak in the series with a two-run blast to center that tied the game at 2-2 in the third, and Oswaldo Cabrera put the Yankees ahead with a two-run homer of his own in the fifth.
Both homers came off of right-hander Triston McKenzie, who tossed seven one-hit shutout innings against the Yankees in Cleveland on July 3 and six shutout innings in the wild-card round against Tampa Bay.
The Yankees seemed to be in trouble early on, as Luis Severino got off to a shaky start in his first postseason start in three years.
He gave up a leadoff double down the right-field line to Kwan in the bottom of the first.
A one-out single by Ramirez put runners on the corners for Naylor, who hit a grounder that Kiner-Falefa couldn’t handle at shortstop for an RBI single to put the Yankees in a 1-0 hole.
A deep fly ball to right by Gonzalez moved the runners to second and third with two outs for Andres Gimenez, who struck out to end the 31-pitch inning.
The Guardians tagged Severino with another leadoff double in the second, this time by Gabriel Arias.
Austin Hedges followed with a flare single to center after failing to get a bunt down.
Severino got Straw to pop out before Kwan singled to right to make it 2-0.
The Yankees didn’t get a hit until Cabrera’s double with one out in the third.
Cabrera advanced to third on a fly ball to center by Gleyber Torres before Judge tied the game with a mammoth 449-foot homer to center for his first hit of the postseason.
Cabrera gave the Yankees their first lead with a two-run shot of his own — 409 feet — in the top of the fifth, finishing it off with an emphatic bat flip.
Severino, who threw 56 pitches and allowed six hits by the end of the second inning, settled down and retired 13 straight before Kiner-Falefa couldn’t throw out Gimenez after making the stop to his right.
The single extended the inning, and Arias followed with a base hit through the right side of the infield to put runners on the corners — and end Severino’s night.
Severino was replaced by right-hander Lou Trivino, as Cleveland went to its bench and replaced Hedges with lefty-swinging Will Brennan.
Brennan singled to right to make it 4-3.
Straw came up and hit a liner that Torres snared for the third out to preserve the Yankees’ lead.
Harrison Bader’s second home run of the series — this one with one out in the seventh — put the Yankees up 5-3.
Jonathan Loaisiga got the first two outs of the seventh before Ramirez beat out an infield hit on a slow chopper to third.
The Yankees went to Peralta to face Naylor.
Peralta fell behind 2-0, but struck him out to end the inning and retired the first five batters he faced before stumbling in the ninth.
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