MLB: New York Yankees save their season by forcing a winner-takes-all game in the ALDS

Gerrit Cole gave New York what it needed, seven solid innings and Harrison Bader hit a two-run home run as the Yankees saved their season and forced a decisive fifth game in the AL Division Series with a 4-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians in Game 4 on Sunday night.

Cole, a $324 million New York man, gave up two runs and struckout eight, beating the Guardians for the second time in six days. He didn’t dominate, but Cole kept Cleveland’s batters off base and off balance.

Bader homered for the third time in the best-of-five series, hitting in the second inning off Cal Quantrill, who went in unbeaten in 44 games at Progressive Field.

After ruining Game 3 on Saturday, when the Yankees’ bullpen had the biggest collapse in the team’s storied postseason history, New York recovered and goes home.

New York kicks off Game 2 loser Jameson Taillon against Aaron Civale at Yankee Stadium on Monday night.

The winner advances to Houston in the AL Championship Series.

Josh Naylor homered for the Guardians, who are in their first year trying to end the current longest drought in Major League Baseball in the World Series after a franchise name change. Cleveland hasn’t won everything since 1948.

The Cleveland franchise 1-7 in winner-take-all postseason games.

Cole was pulled after 110 pitches and Yankees manager Aaron Boone brought Clay Holmes closer for eighth. Holmes didn’t pitch in Game 3 after Boone decided to eliminate him, but didn’t tell the righthander.

Holmes struckout Amed Rosario and All-Star José Ramírez in the eighth before Wandy Peralta was ready to make the save. Working on his third day in a row, Peralta retired three batters on only seven pitches.

The Guardians shouldn’t have been here. But they won the AL Central, defeated Tampa Bay in the wildcard round and had the Yankees on the brink of elimination. Now all the kids of Cleveland have to do is beat the Yankees in the most hostile environment of baseball.

This was the kind of game the Yankees envisioned Cole would play when they signed him to a nine-year free agent contract in 2019 after spending two seasons with the Astros.

There was no magic this time around for the Guardians, who overcame a two-run deficit in the ninth inning on Saturday to win Game 3 dramatically.

Cleveland not only rallied against the New York bullpen on Saturday, but the Guardians became the first team in 168 games to overcome a multiple-run deficit and beat the Yankees in the postseason.

The Guardians closed in 3-2 in the fourth on Naylor’s second postseason homer – and third homer in 17 at bats – off Cole.

Naylor’s laser shot into the seats in front of the bullpens in the outfield sent Cleveland’s crowd into a frenzy that grew even wilder as the animated DH circled the bases, waving his arms inward as if rocking a baby.

Bader’s 429-foot shot into the left field stands gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead in the second, not only giving them momentum, but believing they would even make it to the series after their exhausting loss in Game 3.

The New York dugout erupted with screams and fist-pumping as Bader finished first on his fifth goal in six career strokes at Quantrill. He also homered in Game 1, when Cole and the Yankees defeated Quantrill.

Josh Donaldson singled to open up the second, and one out later, Bader jumped on Quantrill’s first pitch, an 89 mph cutter that he turned into a souvenir.

The Guardians got one run back in the third, but missed a chance for more when Ramírez got a little too aggressive on the basic trails.

With runners on first and second base, Ramírez dropped a bloop into left field on which rookie Steven Kwan scored. Ramírez thought he had a chance to take an extra base and moved into second about halfway through before realizing he didn’t have a chance and was ejected as he retreated to first.