The five most heart-stopping plays of 2024 ALCS Game 4
The Yankees and Guardians have collectively taken years off our lives this series, I’m sure.
Dear sweet fancy Moses, what an absurd ballgame we just witnessed — and on the heels of one of the more crushing losses in recent Yankees history, too. Objectively, Game 3 of the 2024 American League Championship Series will surely go down as a playoff classic from this decade. As a Yankees fan, I would personally rather think about anything else at the present moment, but if you’re putting on your neutral hat? It rocked.
The Yankees woke up on Friday looking to put the bad memories of Jhonkensy Noel and David Fry’s clutch homers behind them in a hurry. I’m generally loathe to invoke the Astros, but New York had to do what Houston did almost 20 years ago (yikes) after Albert Pujols absolutely ruined Brad Lidge with one of this century’s most iconic homers. Despite the Pujols bomb, the Cardinals did not, in fact, win that pennant because the Astros shook it off to take the very next game, ending the League Championship Series.
The comparison isn’t perfect because that Astros victory was the nail in the Cardinals’ coffin, and the Yankees still need one more win. Even with the resurgent Carlos Rodón going in Game 5 and ace Gerrit Cole lined up for a possible Game 6 in the Bronx, this series has demonstrated that no lead is truly safe and that Cleveland has no intention of going down quietly. But getting back to your feet after being punched in the mouth is important, and it doesn’t take a baseball genius to know that the Yankees feel a lot better about leading this series 3-1 rather than sitting dead even at 2-2.
