‘No lead is safe’: Yanks rally, take control of ALCS
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
CLEVELAND — The one lesson Giancarlo Stanton has taken from the past two nights of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field — a chaotic, thrilling, mind-blowing concoction of postseason theater distilled to its most intoxicating form — is simple.
“No lead is safe,” Stanton said.
Duplicating the nauseating drama that was Game 3 was seemingly impossible, but Friday’s Game 4 produced another wild ride, though with a different result.
This time, the New York Yankees, 24 hours after an excruciating body blow of a loss, outlasted the Guardians 8-6 after squandering a four-run advantage and battering Cleveland’s two historically dominant relievers in another classic to take a 3-1 series lead. They can clinch their first World Series appearance since 2009 with a win Saturday in Game 5.
“It feels like nothing until we get it done,” Stanton said. “As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t done nothing.”
Stanton played a starring role in Game 3 as part of the one-two punch that stunned Emmanuel Clase, baseball’s best closer, with two outs in the eighth inning. First Aaron Judge lasered a tying two-run homer. Then Stanton hammered the go-ahead blast. It was the first time Clase had given up multiple home runs in a game in his career.
The outburst, despite coming in a loss, bred confidence in the Yankees. They saw Clase wasn’t invincible. They toppled him and believed they could topple him again.
“That’s going to give you confidence one through nine for the next day and the next day after that,” said Yankees catcher Austin Wells, who homered off Guardians starter Gavin Williams after not reaching base in his previous 21 plate appearances. “It just shows that he can be beat and that it can be just not one guy, it can be multiple guys.”
In the ninth inning Friday, with the score tied at 6, that assurance translated to another round of success against a man who allowed runs in consecutive outings just once in 74 regular-season appearances. The second knockdown commenced with a leadoff single from Anthony Rizzo. Anthony Volpe then lined a single to center field to advance Jon Berti, pinch-running for Rizzo, to third base.
With Wells at the plate, Volpe stole second base to put two runners in scoring position. Clase was staggering again. The Yankees needed to land another blow. It came via a 44 mph chopper off Alex Verdugo‘s bat. Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio, drawn in to cut down the potential tying run at home, appeared to have decided to let Berti score to secure the out at first base, but he didn’t field the ball cleanly. Berti scored, and everybody was safe.
Four pitches later, Gleyber Torres deposited an RBI single to center field to pad the Yankees’ lead and leave the sellout crowd stunned, wondering what happened to the closer who had been so great for so long.
“I’m not losing my confidence,” Clase said in Spanish. “I’m going to give my best. [But] it’s something that I’m surprised about, what’s happening.”
After surrendering five runs during the regular season, Clase has been charged with four over the past two nights.
“Not being scared, not being intimidated, just going in there with the right proper plan,” Stanton said. “It’s going to be a tough at-bat, we know that, but this game is tough and we need runs.”
Stanton didn’t face Clase on Thursday. Instead, he solved the Guardians’ other superb bullpen arm. Cade Smith, a right-handed rookie sensation, had given up one home run in 81 appearances, playoffs included, in 2024. No. 2, despite some struggles, didn’t appear imminent in the sixth inning, not after Smith got ahead of Stanton 0-2 with runners on second and third base.
But Stanton, like Thursday against Clase, did not concede the at-bat. Two pitches later, he blasted a 94 mph fastball 404 feet to the bleachers beyond the tall wall in left field.
It was Stanton’s 15th career playoff home run, tying Judge and Babe Ruth for fourth most in Yankees postseason history. He has hit four of them in these playoffs, fueling the Yankees’ offense when it needed it most.
“He did it again,” Boone said. “I mean, just to get to two strikes there and get to one — looked like almost a letter-high heater maybe and just smooth as — just special. Just locked in, prepared. His preparation and his ability to just lock in and focus is impressive.”
Stanton’s latest postseason moment gave the Yankees a four-run cushion. They needed every run because the Guardians, like they did in Game 3, responded again.
On Friday, they tallied a three-run seventh inning against Jake Cousins and Clay Holmes to pull within a run. The blitz was powered by run-scoring doubles from Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor off Holmes, who stumbled again after surrendering the walk-off home run to David Fry in Game 3.
“It feels like nothing until we get it done. As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t done nothing.”
Giancarlo Stanton on how it feels to be this close to the World Series, the Yankees’ first since 2009
By that point, Boone wasn’t sure how he would deploy his taxed bullpen to secure the remaining outs. He entered the night steadfast on not using Luke Weaver, who had pitched in the first three games of the series and faltered in Game 3.
So with one out in the seventh inning, Boone gave the ball to Mark Leiter Jr., who was added to the Yankees’ roster as an injury substitution before the game and hadn’t pitched since Sept. 29.
Leiter delivered, getting Jhonkensy Noel, Cleveland’s other Game 3 star, to fly out deep to left field before striking out André Giménez to extinguish the threat.
“Booney kept telling me, ‘Be ready for anything,’ and there was a chance I was going to be used to get big outs,” Leiter said.
The eighth inning began with a leadoff double from Bo Naylor, who advanced to third base on Brayan Rocchio‘s groundout before scoring on another messy play. Fry hit a 40.3 mph squibber to Leiter’s left. Leiter tried snagging the ball on the run but booted it. The ball bounced away before Leiter bare-handed it and flipped it to Rizzo at first base. The flip beat Fry, but it handcuffed Rizzo, who didn’t catch it, allowing Rocchio to score the tying run.
A half-inning later, the Yankees accomplished what seemed all but impossible entering October. Clase’s armor was dented in the AL Division Series against the Detroit Tigers when he gave up a go-ahead three-run homer to Kerry Carpenter in the ninth inning of Game 2 and yielded another run in Game 4 three days later.
But four runs on six hits over two nights? At home? What the Yankees have done against Clase is another level. And what they did Friday has them within a win of their first trip to the World Series in 15 years.
“It’s a wave,” Stanton said. “It’s a roller coaster.”
Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham has signed a new five-year contract that will average nearly $7.5 million over the course of the deal, sources told ESPN on Saturday.
The deal prioritized resources for the staff, as the salary pool increases $11 million, which puts it near the top of the Big 12.
The extension takes Dillingham out of the conversation for the Michigan job. He had been in the top group of candidates considered for it.
The deal remains for five years, as longer ones aren’t allowed by Arizona state law, but there are incentives to extend the contract up to 10 years. The deal is pending board approval.
Dillingham signed a new deal a year ago that made him the second-highest-paid coach in the Big 12 in 2025. While there are increases in salary, the heart of this new deal was resources for the program.
“We have the perfect coach for ASU,” a school source said. “We want to give him the tools to do his job the best way possible. That’s giving him resources to put into the staff and program and giving him longevity.”
The deal shows how Arizona State has prioritized football in recent years, as it won the Big 12 last season and reached the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. It marked the first time the Sun Devils won a conference title outright since 1996.
It is also significant for athletic director Graham Rossini, who made it clear this week that retaining Dillingham was the top priority.
As the Michigan job lingered in the wake of Sherrone Moore’s firing, Dillingham got emotional talking about Arizona State. He is a graduate who long called the school his dream job and said on Dec. 13, “I love this place.”
He added: “That doesn’t change how I feel about here. That doesn’t change that my sister’s my neighbor. That doesn’t change that my parents live three doors down. … [Michigan] is one of the best jobs in America, it’s an unbelievable brand, an iconic brand, so a great opportunity for somebody.”
Arizona State is 22-16 under Dillingham, including a 19-7 record over the past two seasons. The Sun Devils play Duke in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl on Dec. 31.
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Eli Lederman
NORMAN, Okla. — Back in the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2019, No. 8 Oklahoma earned an unwanted distinction Friday night. After squandering a 17-point advantage in a 34-24 loss to No. 9 Alabama, the Sooners now own the two largest blown leads in playoff history.
A month after Crimson Tide miscues fueled the defining win of Oklahoma’s 2025 season on Nov. 15, Alabama flipped the script inside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, feasting on errors by quarterback John Mateer and the Sooners’ special team to bounce the hosts in the CFP first round and secure a Rose Bowl quarterfinal date with No. 1 Indiana on Jan. 1.
Down 17-0 early in the second quarter, the Crimson Tide scored on five of their next seven possessions and rattled off 27 unanswered points to match the largest comeback in CFP history, tying the 17-point deficit Georgia overcame to top Oklahoma in a double-overtime, Rose Bowl thriller on New Year’s Day 2018. According to ESPN Research, teams that have led by 17 or more in a CFP game are 28-2 all time. The two losses belong to the Sooners.
Additionally, Friday’s result marked the program’s second-largest blown lead at home since Oklahoma Memorial Stadium opened in 1923. Winless in five playoff trips since 2015, Oklahoma now holds the most losses of any program in CFP history.
“We had the ability and the opportunities to overcome it all even in just the last several minutes of the game, despite some just incredibly critical mistakes,” Sooners coach Brent Venables said. “But it just wasn’t in the cards for us tonight.”
The Sooners’ adopted team motto this fall was “Hard to Kill.” On the same night rap legend 50 Cent performed inside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium with those words emblazoned on his sweater, the Sooners buried themselves with a parade of errors.
An Oklahoma offense that began the postseason ranked 90th nationally scored on three of its first four possessions. By the time wide receiver Isaiah Sategna III caught a 7-yard touchdown from Mateer to open a 17-0 lead with 10:51 remaining in the second quarter, the Sooners had forced three consecutive three-and-outs and were outgaining Alabama 135-12.
After Alabama responded with a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, the dynamics of the second meeting between the two programs in the past 34 days swung on three plays.
Facing third-and-3 from midfield, Mateer evaded a sack and rolled out of the pocket with open space in front of him. He could have run for a first down. Instead, Mateer fired 40-plus yards downfield to running back Xavier Robinson, who failed to haul in the throw. On the next snap, Oklahoma punter Grayson Miller dropped his punt attempt and turned the ball over on downs, setting the stage for a 35-yard field goal from Alabama’s Conor Talty that cut the lead to 17-10.
“Field position against an Oklahoma team is so critical with their defense, so that was huge,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said. “That was really huge for us.”
On the ensuing series, Alabama ran a disguised defensive look that appeared to confuse Mateer. With a safety dropped into coverage and Oklahoma wide receiver Keontez Lewis streaking downfield, Mateer fired, inexplicably, to no one other than Alabama defensive back Zabien Brown, who intercepted the pass and streaked down the Sooners sideline for a 50-yard pick-six.
Suddenly, the game sat level at 17-17 with 1:18 remaining in the second quarter. Of the 15 teams that have gone behind by at least 17 in the first half of a CFP game, the Crimson Tide became the first not to be trailing, courtesy of Mateer’s fourth interception in his past two games.
“I got tricked, and it’s pretty bad,” Mateer said. “I mean, you watch the tape. It was obvious it wasn’t a Cover 0. I got tricked, and it happens sometimes. But when you get tricked, you’ve got to mitigate the damage, and I didn’t do it.”
DeBoer described Alabama’s first-round win as “the opposite of the first game back at home.” Indeed, the Crimson Tide were statistically dominant in Oklahoma’s 23-21 win in Tuscaloosa last month. But the Sooners left with a signature win by taking advantage of mistakes.
In Friday’s rematch, the roles reversed. Second-half touchdowns from Lotzeir Brooks and Daniel Hill thrust the Crimson Tide to a 34-24 lead with 7:24 remaining. Pushing to close the gap, Oklahoma reached field goal position twice in the final three minutes, setting the stage for Lou Groza Award winner Tate Sandell, who had converted on each of his past 24 field goal attempts.
Battling gusting winds, Sandell pushed the first attempt — a 36-yarder — wide left. Ninety seconds later, he came up short on a 51-yard attempt, his first miss from 50-plus yards this season.
Sandell’s pair of misses were the final markers of a night that simply stopped going Oklahoma’s way following a scorching opening 20 minutes. After stunning wins over Tennessee and Alabama in November, and the similarly astonishing appearance of 50 Cent in Norman on Friday night, the Sooners ran out of magic, ultimately beaten at their own game by Alabama.
“When we needed to, we couldn’t pull one out like we have in several other games this year,” Venables said.
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