'It's our time to pick him up': Guards rally to erase Clase's rare hiccup

CLEVELAND -- Emmanuel Clase sank his head as soon as the ball cleared the center-field wall, then stared off into the distance with a look of disbelief as he watched Giancarlo Stanton round the bases.

How could anyone believe what had just happened?

Coming off one of the greatest regular seasons by a reliever in MLB history -- 47 saves and a 0.61 ERA -- Clase entered this postseason having earned the reputation as the most dominant closer in baseball. When he comes in, the Guardians, and whatever team they are playing, know the game is about to be over. That’s what made his appearance in Cleveland’s dramatic 7-5 comeback victory over the Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series so shocking.

Holding a two-run lead with two outs in the eighth inning of a game in which everything had gone according to plan thus far, with an early Guardians lead handed off to their dominant back end of the bullpen, manager Stephen Vogt wasted zero time pulling reliever Hunter Gaddis after a walk of Juan Soto to call on his most electric arm for a four-out save.

Toeing the rubber against Aaron Judge, Clase worked Judge into a favorable 1-2 count before serving up a game-tying two-run homer lined over the right-field wall. Seven pitches later, Stanton put the Yankees ahead by sending a solo shot over the center-field fence.

It was shocking for a number of reasons. During the regular season, Clase allowed just five earned runs and two homers in 74 1/3 innings. The Guardians were 77-2 this year when leading after seven innings, and they hadn’t given up back-to-back homers in the playoffs since Oct. 5, 2018, at Houston.

This was not just the first time Clase had allowed back-to-back home runs in his career. It was also the first time he had allowed multiple home runs in an outing at all, producing a moment that was difficult for anyone in the building to process -- Vogt included.

“You kind of go, ‘What just happened?’” Vogt said. “Emmanuel has been perfect. We couldn't have asked for anything more from Emmanuel all year, and he is going to be right back out there in the ninth tomorrow night. He's human.”

Most surprising was the fact that New York’s sluggers got to Clase’s best stuff. Judge hammered Clase’s cutter, a pitch that is widely regarded as one of the most devastating and unhittable pitches in baseball. That same cutter was fouled off twice by Stanton to stay alive before belting a 1-2 slider left over the middle.

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On a night that will forever be remembered in Cleveland for the two big swings by Jhonkensy Noel and David Fry, Clase suddenly showing signs of being human does raise some concern. He gave up the deciding three-run homer in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the ALDS against the Tigers, and though he bounced back for the rest of that series, Clase experienced another rare moment of imperfection on Thursday when the Guardians desperately needed him at his best. He has now allowed more earned runs (six) and home runs (three) in his six innings this postseason than he did in the entire 2024 regular season.

Despite Clase’s hiccup, which was made a lot more palatable after he was picked up by Noel’s game-tying homer in the ninth and Fry’s walk-off homer in the 10th to cut the Yankees' lead in the series to 2-1, the Guardians will not allow it to diminish their immense faith in their All-Star closer.

“That guy is an all-world closer,” said Guardians starter Matthew Boyd. “He has the ball every single time with the game on the line, and I'm going to take him over whoever is in the box every single time. Our whole club feels the same way.”

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“There's not enough adjectives to talk about how good he was this season,” Fry said of Clase. “We were obviously shook, but it was just like, ‘You know what? It's time we give him a break.’ He carried our team all year long in the ninth inning, and it's our time to pick him up, and I'm glad we did.”