CLEVELAND _ Two bullpen stalwarts who helped save the Yankees in Tuesday's wild-card game experienced a shocking collapse Friday night.
As a result, the Yankees absorbed a brutal postseason loss, blowing a five-run lead and falling to the Indians, 9-8, in 13 innings at a rocking Progressive Field.
The Indians, who trailed 8-3 entering the sixth inning, got only 2 2/3 innings out of ace Corey Kluber and lost one of their best hitters, Edwin Encarnacion, to what looks like a serious ankle injury, took a two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five series.
Yan Gomes yanked a full-count pitch by Dellin Betances down the third-base line for a walk-off RBI single. Austin Jackson led off the 13th with a walk and stole second before scoring on Gomes' hit.
But blaming Betances, who was working his third inning and was terrific in the first two, would be short-sighted.
Francisco Lindor's two-out grand slam in the sixth off previously unhittable Chad Green brought Cleveland within 8-7 and came after a disputed hit by pitch that the Yankees probably should have challenged.
David Robertson struck out three of the first four hitters he faced before Jay Bruce, who homered and drove in three runs in Cleveland's 4-0 victory in ALDS Game 1, led off the eighth with an opposite-field homer to tie it at 8.
The Yankees got a three-run homer from Aaron Hicks and two-run shots from Gary Sanchez and Greg Bird but had only three hits in the final 8 2/3 innings against five Indians relievers.
CC Sabathia, solid and sometimes spectacular, had retired 11 straight when he started the sixth with the 8-3 lead. That streak promptly ended with a leadoff walk by Carlos Santana. After Bruce lined out to short, Joe Girardi brought in Green, who struck out four in two innings in the wild-card victory and posted a 1.83 ERA in 40 appearances this season.
Green got Austin Jackson to fly to left for the second out but allowed a double off the left wall by Gomes that put runners at second and third. Pinch hitter Lonnie Chisenhall appeared to strike out on a foul tip that was held by Gary Sanchez _ the ball seemed to hit the nob of the bat _ but plate umpire Dan Iassogna ruled the pitch hit Chisenhall. The Yankees did not challenge and the bases were loaded.
Not for long. Lindor crushed a 1-and-0 slider high off the right-field foul pole for a grand slam that had the crowd in hysterics.
Todd Frazier led off the 11th with a grounder that third baseman Erik Gonzalez threw into the photographer's pit for a two-base error, but Gomes picked off pinch runner Ronald Torreyes, who strayed too far toward third.
Kluber was 18-4 with a 2.25 ERA this season, including two dominant efforts against the Yankees, but Sabathia was 9-0 with a 1.71 ERA in 10 starts following a Yankees loss this season. The matchup between former Indians Cy Young Award winners _ Sabathia won it in 2007, Kluber in 2014 _ was a mismatch, but not in the way most expected. Kluber allowed six runs and seven hits, departing after Hicks' three-run homer with two outs in the third snapped a 3-3 tie. Bird's two-run homer off Mike Clevinger with one out in the fifth made it 8-3.
Sabathia shook off some slipshod defense and was charged with four runs (two earned) in 5 1/3 innings. Sabathia, 14-5 with a 3.69 ERA this season, allowed three hits, walked three and struck out five.
