In 2017, the Yankees were the closest they could ever come to a bunch of plucky young upstarts. With Aaron Judge putting together one of the best rookie seasons baseball had ever seen and a cavalcade of homegrown talent behind him—coupled with a few castoffs who had put together their game in the Bronx—they exceeded expectations for a club that sold at the previous year’s Trade Deadline and had spent much of the mid-2010s at home for October. Then they won a Wild Card spot, dispatched the Twins, and entered their ALDS matchup in Cleveland very much the underdogs against the 102-win defending AL champions.

It looked like their story would end early when Cleveland took each of the first two games at Progressive Field, especially after the second game, in which the Yankees blew a five-run le

See Full Page