The ball was in the air, soaring on a beautiful parabola toward the deepest part of the ballpark. Off the bat, it seemed Juan Soto wasn’t quite sure. He was taking a good, hard look. But soon he could see what everyone else saw.
He could see that a Cleveland center fielder named Lane Thomas was starting to drift back toward the wall. For most of the ball’s flight, it actually seemed like Thomas thought he had a shot. He kept waiting for it to fall. Kept waiting. Kept waiting. But he kept going back. Kept going back. Kept going back.
And then, you could see Thomas’ shoulders sag ever so slightly and his legs weaken a bit. The ball was over his head. He ran out of room, and the ball was still drifting farther. By the time the ball landed, so did the Yankees — right into the World Series for the first time in 15 years.
Three outs later it was Yankees 5, Guardians 2, and it was a 41st American League pennant for the Yanks. Friday night — either back home in The Bronx or out in Los Angeles — they will begin a quest for a 28th World Series championship. And they are playing their best ball of the season. It’s a hell of a thing and a hell of a time.
“I’m overwhelmed with emotion right now,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who 21 years ago took it upon himself to have his own Juan Soto moment, a homer off his bat shooting another set of Yankees to another Word Series. “I’m so proud of these guys. Another gritty, tough game, so many guys stepping up for us. We’ve been knocking on the door a few times. And now, we’re going to the dance.”
The Yankees came out as they seem to always come out. Gleyber Torres singled leading off the game, again. Soto followed with a rocket — this time a double to the wall — again. The fly in the ointment was that Torres couldn’t make it all the way home before the ball arrived.
And for a while, it seemed that might be costly. The Guardians took a 1-0 lead. They took a 2-0 lead. Their starter, Tanner Bibee, began to pick up confidence. He started to mow the Yankees down. The folks inside Progressive Field started to feel it. They started to believe.
Cleveland as Believe-land.
But Stephen Vogt, who has done such a wonderful job with the Guardians in this, his managerial rookie season and led them to 92 wins and a playoff win over the Tigers, has also made more than a few questionable decisions in this series. And he made a worse one now. There were two outs and one on in the sixth. Giancarlo Stanton was up.
“Give me a million more times the way Tanner was throwing,” Vogt insisted, “and I won’t have him put [Stanton] on.”
Stanton, who has been the Yankees’ most consistently damaging bat in the playoffs. Stanton, who had made Progressive Field his personal playpen.
Stanton, who fell behind 0-and-2, worked the court back to 3-and-2.
And then saw the most remarkable thing: a slider from Bibee that wasn’t just a hanger, wasn’t just a spinner, it seemed to all but stop for a half a heartbeat as it reached the plate.
And Stanton knows what to do with such gifts. By the time it landed, the Yankees were tied, 2-2. And by the time it landed, it felt like just a matter of time before someone else would at last deliver the kill shot to end the Guardians.
Soon enough, Soto did just that.
“We did a really good job,” Soto said. “And now, we’re the best team in the American League.”
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For years, the Yankees have struggled though one October after another where it seemed nobody could get a big hit when it really mattered. Mostly, it was against the Astros, a few times against the Red Sox, a couple of times against the Tigers. They’d get close and they’d go wanting.
Not this time.
“These guys, they lose a tough game, like the one we lost Thursday,” Hal Steinbrenner said, “and they’re so resilient.”
In Cleveland, on three successive nights, the Yankees came up with one hard-to-believe blast after another, a stack of forever swings. Aaron Judge and Stanton on Thursday. Stanton on Friday. Stanton again Saturday. When it ended — appropriately enough, with a fly ball landing in Soto’s glove — they celebrated with a vigor and a passion that befits the moment. Even the Yankees are allowed to behave like little kids when they win the pennant. They did. They should.
“It’s the best feeling you can ever have,” Soto said.
It certainly was. It certainly is.
