The New York Yankees could sniff a 3-0 series lead in the American League Championship Series on Thursday night after Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton hit back-to-back home runs in the top of the eighth inning.
The Yankees felt it, too, with the dugout celebrating wildly after Stanton’s shot put the Bronx Bombers up by a run.
But an inning later, it all came crashing down for New York. Jhonkensy Noel launched a two-run home run off Luke Weaver with the Guardians down to their final out to tie the game and in the 10th inning, David Fry went yard off Clay Holmes to send Cleveland to an exhilarating 7-5 walk-off win.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was asked following the soul-crushing loss if his team got too carried away following Judge and Stanton’s homer and if there was a sense that they had already pulled off the win despite needing to get six more outs. Boone flat-out rejected that notion.
“Come on. No. Got this in the bag. Stop it with that,” Boone said, per YES Network.
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Boone said he allowed himself a quick fist pump after the blasts from Judge and Stanton, but the Yankees did much more celebrating than that. They poured out of the dugout following the homers before congratulating their teammates. Boone had no issue with his team’s reaction.
“It’s the playoffs, man. You hit tying home runs and go-ahead homers, that’s what it looks like,” Boone said. “You never have anything in the bag in the playoffs, no. It’s you never take anything for granted.”
