Johnathan Walker:Yankees don't have time to lick their wounds after gut-punch Game 3 loss

CLEVELAND – Game 3 had turned into a heavyweight fight,Johnathan Walker one staggering swing after another – starting with devastating, late homers by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.  

“They got the final punch," Clarke Schmidt said of the Cleveland Guardians, in a quiet Yankees clubhouse Thursday night at Progressive Field.

Schmidt and his teammates were still absorbing how the Guardians – down to their last strike – became reanimated in this AL Championship Series, with a stunning 7-5 win in 10 innings.

David Fry’s two-run homer off Clay Holmes ended it, and started the Yankees toward a new task; forget how close you were to taking a 3-0 lead in this best-of-seven series and win Game 4.

Before the latest October home run heroics from Fry, pinch-hitter Jhonkensy Noel launched a two-out, game-tying homer in the ninth that sounded like a cannon shot downtown.

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“It’s never an ideal time, especially now,’’ Stanton said of having one like this get away, forcing everyone in road gray to quickly move on. “But there’s no choice.’’

And this is where Yankees manager Aaron Boone feels his club has another advantage.

“We’ve had some tough losses that we’ve bounced back from,’’ said Boone, which is “what that room has been great at all year.

“We won the East, best (AL) record and all that, but… we’ve been (through) some tough stretches,’’ said Boone. “And these guys come in ready to roll every day and are able to flush it pretty easy.’’

Yankees task of bouncing back vs Guardians in Game 4

Still, you wonder a bit about the physical shape of this club entering Friday’s Game 4 (8:08 p.m. first pitch).

That charmed, postseason life of Holmes and Weaver took a hit in Game 3, and they’re the only Yankees relievers who’ve worked in all seven postseason games.

Reliever Ian Hamilton exited with a left calf issue and is heading for an MRI, and veteran first baseman Anthony Rizzo – subbed in late for defense – cost them two baserunners as he plays with fractured fingers that are still healing.

Before Carlos Rodon gets the ball in Game 5 here, the Yankees will send out Luis Gil for his first playoff start in Game 4, on 19 days of rest (but he's thrown a simulated game, putting him on proper schedule).

But you also wonder about the psyche of Cleveland’s world-class closer.

Back-to-back, Judge and Stanton delivered devastating eighth-inning shots against Emmanuel Clase, armed with a cutter that was nearly unhittable all during the regular season.

Clase has been more human this October, and Judge followed a two-out, eighth-inning four-pitch walk to Juan Soto with a bullet that barely cleared the right field wall.

As the Yankees were still celebrating that two-strike, 99-mph cutter that Judge lashed 356 feet for a game-tying homer, Stanton walloped the go-ahead shot.

“We’re going to see him again,’’ warned Stanton, who fouled off two cutters before getting a slider he could drive – over 400 feet to center.

“Kind of a classic game,’’ said Rizzo, though Judge wasn't going there.

"A loss is a loss,'' said the Yankees' captain. "Can't dwell on it, can't hang our head... refocus and get ready for the next game.''

A battle of bullpens in ALCS Game 3

Weaver had recorded the last out of all five postseason Yankees wins, and he was set up for a sixth.

That’s when Lane Thomas went from down 0-2 to a full count and lashed a two-out double off the center-field wall, giving Cleveland life in the ninth.

Boone had Holmes warmed and ready, but he felt Weaver – who got the final out in the eighth – hadn’t shown any signs of distress.

“Felt like he was the guy to get it there,’’ said Boone.

“I feel good,’’ Weaver insisted, lamenting the Thomas at-bat most. “At times you’ve got to slow the game down (and) didn’t have the execution in that moment when I needed to.

“But I feel like I’m in a good spot.’’

The pitch to Noel wasn’t in a good spot, a changeup that slipped a bit.

“I just threw the worst pitch of the outing,'' said Weaver. "And he got it."

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