CLEVELAND, Ohio - Francisco Lindor's grand slam gave the Indians hope, but in October hope isn't enough. Jay Bruce's homer gave them a tie, but ties mean nothing - especially in October.
In the third inning Corey Kluber had a 3-2 lead. Give Kluber a 3-2 lead in October and it's usually enough. But that meant little as well on Friday night.
What the Indians needed was a hard shot of reality. Yan Gomes delivered it with a single past third base in the 13th inning to give the Indians a 9-8 come-from-behind victory over the Yankees and a 2-0 lead in the ALDS.
The win went to Josh Tomlin, who came out of Terry Francona's near empty bullpen to pitch two scoreless innings. The series moves to Yankee Stadium for Games 3 and 4 on Sunday and Monday with the Indians one win away from advancing to the ALCS for the second straight season.
The Yankees tried to win this game in regulation on homers by Gary Sanchez, Aaron Hicks and Greg Bird. Two of those homers came against Kluber, who allowed six runs in 2 2/3 innings in his shortest start of the season.
The Yankees entered the third trailing, 3-2, but Starlin Castro tied it with a two-out single and Hicks made it 6-3 with a three-run blast to right. The six earned runs Kluber allowed matched the total he allowed in his last seven starts.
New York continued to stretch its lead as Bird homered just inside the right-field foul pole off Mike Clevinger for an 8-3 lead in the fifth. The Yankees, who led the AL in homers during the regular season, hit three homers in their wild-card win over the Twins.
Yankee starter CC Sabathia, after struggling through the first two innings, settled down and carried the lead into the sixth. Sabathia was gone when Lindor hit a 1-0 pitch from Chad Green into the right field seats for the fifth grand slam in the Tribe's postseason history. Carlos Santana, Gomes and Lonnie Chisenhall (granted an HBP on a pitch that replay strongly suggested glanced off the knob of his bat and should have been strike 3) scored in front of Lindor.
Bruce pulled the Indians into a 8-8 tie with his leadoff homer in the eighth off David Robertson. Bruce hit a 3-1 pitch into the left field bleachers for his second homer of the series.
Sanchez gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the first with a line-drive homer to center field. The homer followed Kluber's one-out walk of Aaron Judge. Kluber needed 38 pitches to get out of the first inning. Castro's two-out double and Jose Ramirez's error at second helped to extend the inning.
The Indians answered those two runs with two of their own. Santana drove home both runs with a bases-loaded single that scored Lindor and Ramirez. But the Tribe's first dose of bad news was about to arrive.
Bruce, with Encarnacion on second and Santana on first and one out, sent a liner over second base that shortstop Didi Gregorius caught. Encarnacion got back to second in time, but in doing so twisted his right ankle on the base. Encarnacion went down in pain and had to be helped off the field after several minutes of attention by the trainers.
Encarnacion was originally called safe at second, but the Yankees challenged the call. Gregorius tagged Encarnacion as he fell to the ground in pain and came off the bag. The replay confirmed the Yankees challenge while Encarnacion was helped off the field.
Kluber responded with his only clean inning of the night in second. Sabathia continued to struggle in the second as Jason Kipnis gave the Indians a 3-2 lead with a bases-loaded single after Lindor was intentionally walked for the second time in the series. Once again, however, the Indians could not stretch the lead.
Sabathia, with the bases still loaded, retried Ramirez on a foul pop and struck out Michael Brantley, pinch-hitting for Encarnacion.
What it means
Friday's win was the eighth postseason walk-off win in Indians history. The game lasted 5 hours and eight minutes. In terms of innings, it tied the longest postseason game in franchise history.
Nice arm
Gomes took the steam out of a potential Yankee rally in the 11th when he picked off Ronald Torreyes at second base. Torreyes was pinch-running for Frazier, who opened the inning by reaching second base on a throwing error by third baseman Erik Gonzalez.
Torreyes was originally called safe, but the Indians challenged and the call on the field was overturned.
In the second inning, Gomes threw out Frazier on an attempted steal of second.
Encarnacion update
ESPN's Buster Olney Tweeted this about Edwin Encarnacion after he left the game with a sprained right ankle.
Edwin Encarnacion was on crutches and in a walking boot as he left the Indians clubhouse, and got onto a cart. Had a suitcase and a backpack -- Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) October 6, 2017
The pitches
Kluber threw 76 pitches, 45 (59 percent) for strikes. Sabathia threw 77 pitches, 46 (60 percent) for strikes.
Thanks for coming
The Yankees and Indians drew a sellout crowd of 37,681 to Progressive Field on Friday. First pitch was a 5:09 p.m. with a temperature of 68 degrees.
Next
The Indians will work out at Yankee Stadium on Saturday at 4 p.m. On Sunday, they'll play Game 4 of the ALDS with Carlos Carrasco (18-6, 3.29) facing New York's Masahiro Tanaka (13-12, 4.74) at 7:38 p.m. Fox Sports 1 will televise the game. ESPN Radio, WTAM/1100 and WMMS/FM 100.7 will broadcast it.