Choke! Yankees’ season on brink after they blow 2-run lead in 9th and lose to Guardians

CLEVELAND — The Yankees were knocked down early, then got back up and unleashed powerful blow after powerful blow.

They were in deep trouble early into Game 3 of their Division Series with the Cleveland Guardians, then they weren’t.

And then the Yankees blew it in the ninth inning to put their season on the brink.

Unbelievable.

The Yankees took two-run lead into the ninth, then coughed it up and lost 6-5 on a two-out, two-run walk-off hit by Oscar Gonzalez off Clarke Schmidt.

This major choke left the Yankees down 2-games-to-1 in the best of five and needing to win Sunday night in Cleveland to save their season.

BUY YANKEES TICKETS: STUBHUB, VIVID SEATS, TICKETSMARTER, TICKETMASTER

This awful ending occurred after Aaron Judge woke up and finally put one in the seats with a man on after a bunch of strikeouts and rookie Oswaldo Cabrera did the same, his dinger punctuated with an epic bat flip.

Harrison Bader also hit his second homer of the series, giving the Yankees a 5-3 seventh-inning lead that held up until the ninth when relievers Wandy Peralta and Schmidt were torched for three runs on five hits.

The Yankees trailed 2-0 in the third — and it could have been worse at that point — when Judge finally did something on a night he was dropped from leadoff to the No. 2 hole.

Cabrera, the Yankees’ No. 9 hitter, doubled to right with one down for the first hit off Guardians starter Triston McKenzie. After Gleyber Torres flied out to center, Judge got all of a 2-1 fastball that was left over the middle of the plate, driving it over the center-field wall for a 449-foot, game-tying homer..

This was the first hit of the series for Judge, who struck out swinging in the first inning to go 0-for-9 with eight strikeouts and a run.

Two innings later, the game was still tied 2-2 when Bader led off the Yankees fifth with a single and Cabrera homered with right with one down. A switch-hitting batting left, Cabrera stood at home plate for a couple seconds to admire his towering no-doubt homer, then flipped his bat at least 10 feet into the air before going into his home run trot.

Down 4-2, Cleveland got a run back in the fifth after Yankees starter Luis Severino was knocked out with two on and two down, but Hader’s homered in the sixth restored the two-run cushion.

Severino’s first two innings were very shaky, as he allowed a run in a 31-pitch first that ended with runners on the corners and another in the second before stranding two in scoring position.

With Domingo German throwing in the Yankees bullpen, Severino got the final two outs in the third, then had consecutive 1-2-3 innings and retired the first two hitters of the sixth to set down 11 in a row.

Severino was pulled after allowing consecutive two-out hits in the sixth, one of the runners scoring when reliever Lou Trivino was greeted with a run-scoring single by pinch-hitter Will Brennan. Myles Straw then almost tied the game, but his hard liner was speared by Torres at second base for the third out.

From there, the Yankees bullpen got the game to the ninth, then melting down.

NOTABLE

—Judge was 1-for-4 with a homer and strikeout. He just missed homered a second time in the eighth when he flyball to deep left was caught at the wall.

—Catcher Kyle Higashioka made his first start of the series and was 0-for-2 with a walk.

—Bader was 2-for-3 to hike his ALDS average to .300.

—Giancarlo Stanton was 0-for-4 with a strikeout, leaving him 1-for-9 in the ALDS, the one hit a two-run homer in the first inning of the Game 2 loss.

LOOKING AHEAD Sunday: ALDS Game 4, Yankees at Guardians, 7:07 p.m., TBS. RHP Gerrit Cole (1-0, 1.42) vs. RHP Cal Quantrill (0-1, 5.40).

Monday: ALDS Game 5, Guardians at Yankees, 7:37 p.m., TBS, if necessary.

NOTABLE

— Judge was 1-for-4 with a homer and strikeout. He just missed homered a second time in the eighth when he flyball to deep left was caught at the wall.

— Cabrera was 2-for-3 with a homer and double after going 0-for-8 with five strikeouts in his first two career postseason games.

— Catcher Kyle Higashioka made his first start of the series and was 0-for-2 with a walk.

— Giancarlo Stanton was 0-for-4 with a strikeout, leaving him 1-for-9 in the ALDS, the one hit a two-run homer in the first inning of the Game 2 loss.

LOOKING AHEAD

Sunday: ALDS Game 4, Yankees at Guardians, 7:07 p.m., TBS. RHP Gerrit Cole (1-0, 1.42) vs. RHP Cal Quantrill (0-1, 5.40).

Monday: ALDS Game 5, Guardians at Yankees, 7:37 p.m., TBS, if necessary.

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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.

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