CLEVELAND, Ohio — You don’t just hand somebody a bat and tell them to hit a home run.
Not with two out in the bottom of the ninth. Not with your team trailing 5-3 after surrendering a lead in the most soul-crushing way possible. Not with the guy who had gone more than a month and 76 plate appearances since leaving the yard as your best option.
You just don’t.
But manager Stephen Vogt and the Guardians did. And Big Christmas made it happen.
Jhonkensy Noel’s two-out, game-tying, pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the ninth Thursday sent Game 3 of the American League Championship Series into extra innings where David Fry belted a two-run walk-off shot of his own for a 7-5 Guardians win.
Fry said the script called for Cleveland’s gentle giant to wrestle the spotlight from the grasp of New York’s MVP and captain, Aaron Judge, who had authored his own signature game-tying home run in the top of the eighth off otherwise unflappable closer Emmanuel Clase.
“It’s like, ‘Here you go, Big Boy, hit a two-run homer,’ and he did,” Fry said. “It’s so cool.”
Noel’s no-doubt blast off Yankees closer Luke Weaver came on a 1-0 changeup that hung tantalizingly over the middle of the plate. Weaver said it was the worst pitch he had thrown all night.
“The ball just came out of my hands a little different,” Weaver told reporters afterward. “He took an aggressive swing and he got it. The way he swung at it made me think he was looking for it.”
Noel said his plan was to hunt for a pitch close to his body, and when he got one, to execute a good swing on it.
“It was about location,” Noel said via Guardians interpreter Agustin Rivero. “That’s kind of like my strength and I knew I was able to execute if he threw a fastball (first) and then the changeup as he did.”
The home run was the sixth game-tying postseason homer in the ninth inning or later in major league history and just the second in Cleveland history, joining Albert Belle in Game 1 of the 1995 AL Division Series against Boston.
Belle’s solo home run (and subsequent biceps flex) off Rick Aguilera in the 11th made it possible for Cleveland to walk off in the 13th inning on Tony Peña’s game-winner in the first ever postseason game at the ballpark then known as Jacobs Field.
The last time a pinch-hit home run tied a playoff game in the ninth inning or later was Game 3 of the 2012 ALDS when Raúl Ibanez of the Yankees slugged a solo shot to beat Baltimore.
Noel had gone 1 for 15 in the postseason and had not had an extra-base hit in 41 plate appearances. His last home run came Aug. 30 against Pittsburgh, a span of 76 plate appearances without leaving the yard.
But Vogt told Noel to grab a bat for one reason, and one reason only.
“He pinch-hit to hit a homer,” Vogt said. “That’s why we sent him up there.”
Noel said he knows every time his name is called it is because Vogt and the Guardians coaches believe in him and trust him.
“That’s something they’ve done the whole year,” Noel said. “I know whenever the matchup makes sense for them, they’re going to trust me in that situation.”
Vogt said the moment is never too big for Big Christmas, and the Dominican native had taken no bigger swing of the bat until that one in the 10th inning.
“No matter what — if he’s struggling, not struggling, you name it — he steps up and he gives you everything he has once he gets there,” Vogt said. “He’s not sped up. He’s not afraid of the big moment. We saw that in his debut. We’ve seen it time and time again.”
Reaction in the dugout to Noel’s blast was overwhelming.
“It was amazement,” Fry said. “It was so much excitement, but then it was just like, ‘Oh, yeah, of course Jhonkensy hit a game tying homer against a guy throwing 98 and throws a changeup and he hits it for a homer.’ Nobody does that.”
Game 3 starter Matthew Boyd said there was a feeling among players that Noel had a chance to have a big moment.
“You just knew something good was going to happen,” Boyd said. “Those guys coming up to the plate. Man, it’s not the first time that he’s come through in a huge moment like that. I’m so happy for him.”
