No opposition. Unshakable. Emmanuel Klass, unbeatable for six months, was nowhere near being at the same level in October.
The Guardians couldn’t count on him when it mattered most.
For the second night in a row, the New York Yankees made the All-Star Game in the late innings and Cleveland is on the verge of elimination with an 8-6 win Friday night in Game 4 of the American Football League.
Clase gave up back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning of Game 3, but was bailed out by his teammates as the Guardians hit a pair of homers in the final two outs to avoid falling into a 3-0 deficit. Deficit in the game.
After exiting the bullpen with his usual flair, Klaas gave up three singles in the ninth inning, two of them hit quietly, and the Yankees scored twice to break a 6-6 tie.
There has not been a team all season that has had so much success against Klaas. The Yankees have beaten him twice in just over 24 hours.
“He’s obviously the best ever,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “But I think when you have some success against him, and you know he pitches a lot, like a lot of our guys, he’s focused a lot of his guys in the postseason, I think there’s probably a little bit of confidence that we can do that against one of the greats of the game.” .
Clase led the American League with 47 saves and a 0.61 ERA and made 34 consecutive saves to end the regular season. He allowed just five earned runs.
But Cleveland’s saves leader showed weakness when he allowed a three-run homer off Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter in a 3-0 Division Series loss. He was exposed more by the Yankees.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said Friday afternoon that he was unfazed by Game 3 and wasn’t afraid to give the ball to Clase again.
“He’s the best closer in the world,” Vogt said. “He threw two home runs in the postseason. That’s right. Anything outside of that, don’t worry about it. He threw two bad pitches.”
He did some bad things in Game 4.
In six postseason appearances, Clase was 0-2 with a 10.29 ERA. He had two saves, but both came against the Tigers, who don’t have anything close to the Yankees’ lineup.
The class avoided reporters Thursday, but stood at its locker Friday to explain what went wrong.
He’s not even sure.
“Yes, I mean it’s obviously a bit surprising,” he said through a translator. “Obviously I’m keeping my confidence high and I’m still confident in what I can do. But it’s a bit surprising that they’ve been able to get the result they’ve had so far.”
Klaas insists Vogt, who does not believe the 26-year-old was as sharp as him, was not overwhelmed by the work.
“It felt like the ball was sliding out of the middle of the field,” he said. “You have to give them credit. They’ve handled it great the last couple of days. That’s what the Yankees do really well. They take a really good approach against their pitchers, and then they get pitches up the middle. They’re not throwing them out less, and they’ve really taken advantage of that.” .
Klass has led the best team in MLB this season, and if he gets another chance, the Guardians are confident he will come out on top.
“He knows everyone in this club and in this club believes in him,” said rookie right fielder Cade Smith, who gave up Giancarlo Stanton’s sixth-inning homer. “Two difficult nights did not shake our confidence in him at all.”
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