Gutsy bullpen combines to bring Yankees back from brink

Yankees starting pitchers have combined for eight innings in which they have given up 15 runs in three ALDS games.

And yet they are still alive partly because of Aaron Judge and partly because the arms who followed Carlos Rodón on Tuesday night were up to the task.

Fernando Cruz, Camilo Doval, Tim Hill, a particularly lengthy Devin Williams and a particularly gutsy David Bednar pieced together 6 ⅔ scoreless innings in a stirring, 9-6 comeback victory over the Blue Jays in The Bronx to keep the season breathing.

Manager Aaron Boone had to tap into his bullpen in the third inning, Rodón pulled from a game in which the Yankees trailed, 6-1, and the Yankees were 21 outs from elimination.

Instead, the bats came alive and a spotless bullpen recorded the final 20 outs without a blemish — surrendering just three hits, walking none and striking out nine — against an opposing offense that has consistently bruised Yankees pitching.

It began with Cruz, who entered what was nearly a hopeless game in the third with a runner on first and struck out Addison Barger before Andres Giménez grounded out to strand the runner.

Cruz allowed a two-out single to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the fourth, and Doval — an option who had lost Boone’s faith in the regular season but has gained it again in October— induced a groundout from Alejandro Kirk to escape.

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The Yankees’ offense, keyed by Judge’s three-run shot in the fourth, managed to tie the game after four innings and would keep adding on — while the bullpen kept the Blue Jays in check.

Hill inherited a runner-on-second jam from Doval in the fifth and struck out Addison Barger. The lefty retired the Jays in order in the sixth before Williams and Bednar split up the nine outs of the season.

Williams had pitched in 67 games during a roller-coaster regular season and zero had entailed recording more than three outs. But the righty, whose stuff and makeup had been in question for much of the season, showed gas and guts in throwing 16 pitches in a clean seventh inning — including becoming the first pitcher to retire Guerrero on the night — and then returned for the eighth, in which he let up a single to Ernie Clement before striking out Anthony Santander.

A pitcher who has not been popular in The Bronx then walked off the mound to a standing ovation as Bednar jogged in from the bullpen.

The seventh-year big leaguer, who had never pitched in the postseason before this October, induced a couple ground outs to strand Clement in the eighth before the tensest three outs of the game against the top of the lineup.

George Springer swung through a splitter. Nathan Lukes stared at a splitter that nipped the top of the zone.

And Guerrero grounded out to a diving Amed Rosario at third base, Bednar embracing Austin Wells as an exhale was allowed in The Bronx.