Yankees must prove they can get off the mat after gut-wrenching Game 3 loss

<p>CLEVELAND — It wasn’t three-games-to-none. But it was just about as close as you can get. Not only because Luke Weaver was ahead of Lane Thomas 0-2 with two outs in the ninth and the Yankees up two runs. But because of how the Yankees had flipped the game the inning before. Not just back-to-back homers by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. But of the game’s best closer, Emmanuel Clase. So it was going to be as stirring a victory as existed in the Aaron Era — Judge and Boone. One strike to three-and-oh in this fashion. The doorstep of the World Series. Then Luke Weaver gave up a two-run homer to Jhonkensy Noel after allowing a full-count Thomas double. Tie score. Then Clay Holmes surrendered a two-out, two-run walkoff shot to David Fry in the 10th. And if you want, close your eyes Yankees fans, this all occurred on the 20th anniversary of the Yanks on the precipice of sweeping the Red Sox in the ALCS and then Dave Roberts stole a base and triggered what was the greatest comeback in MLB history as Boston won four straight, ended The Curse and won its first championship since 1918. Yeah, these Guardians are not those Red Sox. But these Yankees are not those tough-minded champion Yankees. And now it is not three-nothing. It is two games to one, Yankees still ahead, but both teams having bullpens on fumes, which potentially opens the door to funky stuff. So the Yankees all had the right sound from their choir — gut-wrenching loss , but belief they are good at turning the page and they will, etc. But what Weaver failed to close opened what the Yankees did not want to see open, obviously — an underdog suddenly with more of a fighting chance. An underdog who might not have The Curse, but has gone the longest of any franchise (since 1948) of last winning a title. “I just really felt like I let the team down there, myself down,” Weaver said. “It feels a little devastating at the end of the day.” The Yankees did not play well, but like so often when they did not play technically well in the long season, their long-ball penchant looked as if it would bail them out. They botched four balls at first base, two by Jon Berti contributed to runs and two were by Anthony Rizzo, who was put in for defensive reasons. Jose Trevino started at catcher for the first time this postseason and Cleveland went 3-for-3 in steals off him. And Trevino, after knocking in the first run in the second inning, continued the Yankees’ unpardonable baserunning blunders by getting picked off. Follow The Post’s coverage of the Yankees in the postseason: When he did, the Yanks led 1-0 and five of their nine hitters had reached against Matt Boyd, who needed 39 pitches to register four outs. After the Trevino pickoff, it took Boyd 36 pitches to retire 10 straight batters — so another lefty humbling the Yankees. That allowed Cleveland to get to its strength, setup work by Cade Smith, Tim Herrin and Hunter Gaddis into Clase, who entered after a Juan Soto two-out walk in the eighth. Clase permitted two homers in 74 1/3 innings in one of the most dominant relief regular seasons ever. But then he gave up a huge three-run shot to Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter to lose Division Series Game 2. Still, Clase came in slinging near 100-mph cutters, got ahead of Judge 0-2, went to 1-2 and then Judge lashed a liner to right for a tying two-run homer. Judge was hitless in his prior 23 postseason at-bats with two strikes, was 3-for-66 in those spots without getting a hit out of the infield and had not homered with two strikes in the playoffs since doing so against Boston in Game 2 of the 2018 Division Series. Stanton then had an even better at-bat, going down 0-2, fouling off three of the next four pitches and then launching a go-ahead shot that sure felt like it was a winner. The Yankees even added an insurance run in the ninth, somehow prospering on yet another baserunning gaffe, this one by Anthony Volpe. But Weaver and Holmes have pitched in every playoff game. And Weaver was facing Thomas for the third time in three games. He bemoaned not putting Thomas away as the key at-bat, not the tying homer from Noel that followed. An inning later, Holmes left a sinker up to Fry and it was the Guardians who won with the power of three two-run homers. “Sucks losing like that, obviously, but kind of a classic game, and we’ll be ready to roll tomorrow,” Aaron Boone said. Tomorrow is Friday, Game 4. The Yanks are starting Luis Gil, who last pitched Sept. 28, against Gavin Williams, who last started Sept. 22. Both closers, Clase and Weaver, have been demystified and both teams are facing the likelihood of needing exhausted bullpens a lot. It raises the chance for the unexpected in a series the Yankees were so tantalizingly close to being up three-oh. One strike away from one win to their first World Series appearance in 15 years. And now?</p>