There were still six outs left. Gerrit Cole had gotten the Yankees this far. He’d mostly been the equal of his status as ace of the staff, leading with his heart and his fastball across seven innings and 110 pitches. He’d gotten 21 Cleveland Guardians out. The Yankees led, 4-2. Six outs to The Bronx.
But Cole was cooked. He wasn’t going to get them. The Yankees had to get to 27 outs, one night after they stalled at 26, one night after the bullpen door — and who was available behind it — became a most improbable focal point of this American League Division Series.
One night after the Guardians had pinned the Yankees’ backs to the cold wall of winter.
This time, the bullpen door at Progressive Field opened, and out trotted Clay Holmes. On Saturday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone had declared him unavailable “unless there was an emergency.” This was news to Holmes, according to Holmes. There was some he-said/he-said. There was some pregame explaining.
“We had a good conversation about the situation last night,” Holmes said.
“I think we’re on the same page with it,” Boone said.
“I trust the people making decisions here,” Holmes said.
So here was Holmes, unwitting face of the Yankees’ most critical crisis of the year, working the bottom of the eighth. With one out, he walked Steven Kwan, unsurprising because Kwan has been a pest to everybody in this series. There were 36,728 people inside the ballpark, and they sensed a Moment. They rose to their feet. They roared.
Saturday, they’d seen their Guardians do something that hadn’t happened in the 167 previous times the Yankees had entered a postseason ninth inning with a multiple-run lead: They’d come back. They’d won the game. They stunned the Yankees. They probably even shocked themselves.
But they didn’t face Holmes on Saturday, and even as Holmes had his issues in the second half of the season, he remains the Yankees best back-end bullpen option. Now, he had to prove it.
He struck out Amed Rosario. He struck out Jose Ramirez. He threw 17 pitches, and his sinker had its sink and he looked the picture of health. In the space of two hitters, he kicked a plug out of the wall at Progressive Field and helped steer the Guardians toward midnight and this series toward The Bronx.
“I thought he threw the ball very well,” Boone said.
“I felt good,” Holmes said. “I felt more than capable of doing my job.”
“We’ll see what we have tomorrow,” Boone said.
That would be Monday, Game 5, and that means it will be win-or-be-gone at Yankee Stadium. It also means Boone may have to seal Holmes in plastic Bubble wrap if he wishes to keep him out of the game.
“It’s all hands on deck,” Holmes said. “I want to be out there.”
It will certainly be a crowded gathering in the bullpen tomorrow, since just about everyone with a working arm who isn’t Cole or Luis Severino will be an option — even, Boone hopes, Wandy Peralta, who pitched for the third straight day Sunday and rudely dismissed the Guardians 1-2-3 in the ninth to pick up an uber-efficient seven-pitch save.
Jameson Taillon will get the ball to start, but he is a starter in name only. Both teams are likely to empty their pens in an effort to be the first to 27 outs, to be the one boarding an airplane bound for Houston and the AL Championship Series. Cleveland’s strength is its pen, and its premier relievers mostly took the weekend off. They’ll be ready to eat as many of those 27 outs as needed.
But so will the Yankees’ relievers, Holmes most of all. He was clearly uncomfortable at becoming the subject of so much postgame obsession Saturday — though it was also clear he was at least a little annoyed if there’d been a perception that it was his choice to sit out.
“As a competitor,” he said, “you want to be out there as much as possible.”
That’s a good thing. Because if things progress as they’ve progressed in all four games of this series, it will be a close game. And if things go according to the Yankees’ best-laid plans, they will hold the lead. And it is impossible to believe Holmes wouldn’t be making the trot to the mound to officially book their passage to Texas.
“It’s going to be crazy,” Holmes said, and he seemed genuinely grateful to be referring to Yankee Stadium on Monday night and not the Communications Snafu Heard Round the World.