NEW YORK _ All season, Joe Girardi has praised his team's "resiliency."
Resilient after a 1-4 start to the regular season, resilient after a slew of injuries contributed to a two-month slide into mediocrity after soaring to 15 games over .500 in mid-June.
But never was that characteristic tested like Sunday night.
The Yankees were coming off one of the worst postseason losses in franchise history, blowing a five-run sixth-inning lead in Game 2 of the best-of-five American League Division Series on Friday night and falling behind the powerful Indians two games to none.
Girardi put himself front and center in that defeat, failing to challenge an incorrect hit-by-pitch call on a strikeout that would have ended the inning. That set up Francisco Lindor's grand slam.
A Sunday night that started with Girardi getting booed soundly during pregame introductions for that decision ended with roars from Yankee Stadium crowd as the Yankees got back into the series with a white-knuckle 1-0 victory in front of 48,614.
The place pulsated throughout Masahiro Tanaka's brilliant seven shutout innings and when Greg Bird sent Andrew Miller's fastball into orbit in the seventh inning for a home run into the second deck in right field.
They brought the noise in the final 12/3 innings when a rejuvenated Aroldis Chapman earned the save, though not without some theater. After Chapman struck out the final two batters in the eighth and the leadoff batter in the ninth, Jason Kipnis singled and Jose Ramirez reached when Todd Frazier made a diving stop of a grounder in the hole but couldn't cleanly get the ball out of his glove. Chapman fell behind Jay Bruce 2-and-0 before Bruce struck out for the fourth time. He then concluded a seven-pitch at-bat by getting Carlos Santana to fly to center to end it.
The crowd very much believed what the Yankees declared in the disappointment of their silent clubhouse Friday: a win in Game 3 and this very much becomes a series.
Luis Severino, who lasted only one-third of an inning in the wild-card game, will get the ball Monday night as the Yankees try to force a deciding Game 5 Wednesday in Cleveland.
The evening was marked by pivotal plays and performances by the Yankees.
There was Tanaka escaping a one-out triple jam in the fourth and Aaron Judge, who misplayed the Jason Kipnis drive that resulted in the triple, robbing Lindor of a two-run homer in the sixth inning.
But Bird, who had a Judge-like spring training but was a non-factor much of the regular season because of a slow-healing right ankle bone bruise, is as good a place to start as any.
He took Miller, who allowed exactly one homer to a lefty hitter this season, into the second deck in right on a 1-and-1 fastball to make it 1-0. It was the 24-year-old's second homer of the series; his two-run blast in the fifth inning of Game 2 made it 8-3.
Tanaka, meanwhile, resembled the pitcher who was the staff ace his first three years in the Bronx and the one who struck out a career-high 15 in his final regular season start of the season, Sept. 29 against the Blue Jays. The right-hander allowed three hits, one walk and struck out seven in a terrific outing that the Indians' Carlos Carrasco matched. Carrasco allowed three hits and struck out seven over 52/3 shutout innings.
Miller replaced him with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth and struck out Starlin Castro.
Tanaka threw a first-pitch strike to Lindor before striking out the leadoff man on a 1-and-2 splitter. He needed one pitch to retire Kipnis on a pop up to third and struck out Ramirez on a sinker to end the 11-pitch inning.
Not to be outdone, Carrasco struck out two in a perfect 10-pitch bottom half, striking out Judge and Sanchez.
Tanaka started the second the way he did the first, striking out Bruce, 3 for 9 with two homers the first two games, with a splitter. Bruce looked lost all night, striking out three times against Tanaka.
Santana battled for seven pitches, ripping a full-count 95-mph fastball to right for Cleveland's first hit. Tanaka stifled any hopes of a rally, getting Austin Jackson to ground into a 5-4-3 double play.
Bird became the first Yankee to reach base with two outs in the bottom half of the second when Carrasco hit him on the foot with a first-pitch curveball. Carrasco, however, struck out Frazier, 9 for 23 in his career off the pitcher coming in, on a 2-and-2 slider to end the inning.
Tanaka pitched out a jam in the fourth. With one out, Kipnis sent a 1-and-1 fastball to right where Judge overran the ball slightly, the ball banging off his glove and rolling along the track, leading to a triple. But Tanaka earned his fifth and sixth strikeouts, getting Ramirez and Bruce on splitters. During the at-bats, three splitters hit the dirt, which Sanchez, whose defense has been a season-long issue, blocked successfully.
