CLEVELAND — It was the whole point of the trade. It was the reason the Yankees gave what the Padres needed to make it happen.
Because last year was a non-playoff embarrassment for the Yankees. And 14 years without a pennant was a pinstriped eternity. So it took Michael King and a good prospect named Drew Thorpe and three other pieces plus a $31 million contract, and the knowledge that with all that, the Yankees were guaranteed only one year of Juan Soto, but that is what was necessary.
They would worry about 2025 and thereafter when the season was done. The key was that their season end in the World Series.
It is going to.
Soto hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning. He was down 1-2 in the count to Hunter Gaddis, and yet still seemed in command. It is the magic of Soto. The at-bat is always his. The moment never bigger than the man.
So the Yankees won ALCS Game 5 by a 5-2 score. They won the AL pennant for the 41st time. They will be part of the 120th Fall Classic because Soto homered 5,463 days after the Yankees last played in and won the World Series.
There were other heroes. Giancarlo Stanton hit his fourth homer of this series and the 16th of his brilliant postseason career to tie the score in the sixth. And Mark Leiter Jr., Tim Hill, Jake Cousins and Luke Weaver fashioned 5 ¹/₃ shutout relief innings — most of that group working on fumes.
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But the clinching night belonged to Soto, who has followed a brilliant first Yankee season with two terrific playoff rounds. It all is going to bring a louder cha-ching for him come the offseason in free agency. But that is business for later.
The business of now is the Yankees returning to what was long their home office — the World Series. This ends their second-longest drought without reaching the World Series in their history at 14 years — same as 1982-95, trailing only the longest from 1903-1920.
Soto was a culture changer for the Yankees. He gave them the lefty greatness they so badly needed. But also infected the whole team with his calm and patience — the Yankees took so much better at-bats this year than last and Soto was the influence.
In this postseason, Gleyber Torres and Soto have been setting the tone atop the lineup.
For the seventh time in nine playoff games, both reached base safely. Yet they had just four runs from all of that via a two-run homer by Soto, an RBI single by Soto and a dropped pop-up by Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio off of Aaron Judge’s bat.
Torres and Soto have combined to reach safely in 15 of 18 first-inning plate appearances and every other Yankee is 0-for-23, including 0-for-8 by Judge.
But the problem was not just the hitting in the first inning Saturday. The Yankees are the majors’ worst baserunning team by metrics and eyesight. Torres led off the first with a single. Soto then split right-center field with a double that reached the wall. Torres is not fast. There were no outs. Judge and Stanton were due next. Third base coach Luis Rojas should have held Torres.
He saw the ball reach the wall, though, and wanted a quick run. But Jhonkensy Noel made a strong peg to Andres Gimenez, who made an exquisite feed to the plate to nail Torres.
This had the same chilling effect on the Yankee offense as Jose Trevino getting picked off first base in the second inning of Game 3. It robbed Yankee momentum and allowed a struggling Guardian starter — Matt Boyd in Game 3 and Tanner Bibee on Saturday — to settle down and get far into a game, particularly for these Guardians.
The problem for Cleveland is that manager Stephen Vogt went one batter too far with Bibee. Torres and Soto again opened an inning, this time the sixth, with singles. But Judge hit into a double play. Bibee then worked the count full to Stanton before he walloped a game-tying two-run homer.
This is the Yankees’ Wite-Out against all their transgressions — they can get the ball out of the ballpark and they are strong at run prevention. The bullpen suppressed the Guardians and Soto brought more power.
He brought what he was acquired to bring. All regular season. And through two rounds of the playoffs right up to his final at-bat of this American League season.
Soto went 402 feet to right-center field, and so the Yankees are going back to the World Series.
It was a Juan of a kind moment.
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