NEW YORK — If it feels like this American League Championship Series might already be over, well, that’s unfair to both the Cleveland Guardians and to history. But the Guardians and their manager, Stephen Vogt, approached the second game on Tuesday with the urgency and aggressiveness worthy of the stage — and still looked unfit to share it with the New York Yankees, who took a 6-3 victory and a two-games-to-none series lead.

Make no mistake: the Guardians deserve to be here. They won 92 games this season, just two fewer than the Yankees and part of a vastly underappreciated stretch of success. Did you know that in the last dozen seasons, only the Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers have more victories than Cleveland? And those teams, you may have heard, spend a bit more money.

But if the Guardians can’t win a game like this, they must be asking themselves, deep down, when they will ever break through.

Consider:

— They got on base in nine of their last 15 plate appearances against the Yankees’ ace, Gerrit Cole. The barrage of singles and walks chased Cole in the fifth inning, but produced just two runs.

— The Yankees stumbled into two outs on the bases in the sixth — “That’s what they do,” John Sterling noted on radio, “run the bases like drunks!” — yet still scored a run on a bobble by Guardians right fielder Will Brennan. It was the second Cleveland error, after shortstop Brayan Rocchio fumbled a pop up to score a run in the first.

— The Guardians used their best starter, Tanner Bibee, and all of their best relievers had two days of rest. But the Yankees managed six runs while rapping 11 hits, five for extra bases, and Cleveland still hasn’t found a lead for its star closer, Emmanuel Clase, to protect.

— José Ramírez, the Guardians’ centerpiece third baseman, lashed a homer to pierce the Yankees’ suddenly untouchable closer, Luke Weaver. But it was poor timing for Ramírez’s first hit of the series; he’d previously left five runners on base.

José Ramírez blasts a solo shot in the 9th #ALCS pic.twitter.com/PHtk76QPUT

— MLB (@MLB) October 16, 2024

“We didn’t play Cleveland baseball today,” left fielder Steven Kwan said. “We had a couple of errors. We obviously pride ourselves on our defense. So if we want to win some games, we’re gonna have to play Guard Ball.”

By that, Kwan said, he meant “fundamental baseball: make the plays that we’re supposed to, hit with runners in scoring position, get the guy over. Just fundamental stuff to be able to play the game.”

It’s lazy to say that the moment looked too big for the Guardians, who have baseball’s youngest roster for the fourth year in a row, according to general manager Mike Chernoff. This is a team that lost its ace, Shane Bieber, to injury after two starts; lost its division lead in August and rallied to finish 17-10; and lost two of its first three playoff games to Detroit but recovered with two stirring comebacks.

“I feel like all year we’ve kind of really done this,” Bibee said. “I feel like at the beginning of the year, in a lot of people’s eyes, we weren’t supposed to be here. But we’ve always known that we were supposed to be here. And we still think that. So that doesn’t change just because we’re down two games. There’s a reason it’s a seven-game series.”

It is, but credit Vogt — a rookie manager — for approaching Tuesday with a must-win mentality. He went to his limited bench in the second inning of Game 3 in Detroit, and it didn’t work then. But that didn’t stop Vogt from gambling again this time, using David Fry to hit for Bo Naylor with the bases loaded in the fourth.

Fry popped out on the first pitch, and because an elbow injury keeps Fry from catching, Austin Hedges had to replace Naylor. Naturally, when the Guardians loaded the bases again in the fifth, it was Hedges — a defensive stalwart but historically poor hitter — who struck out to end the inning.

“It was the highest leverage moment of the game, bases loaded, one out,” Vogt said, explaining the decision to use Fry in the fourth. “We want to take a shot with David. Gerrit Cole, really good pitcher, made a good pitch on David and got the pop up. Austin’s been a big part of our team. We wanted to take our shot right there. We felt that was our biggest opportunity at that point. You don’t know when you’re going to get three guys on against somebody like Gerrit Cole.

“It’s who we are. We take chances when we do. It’s just unfortunate we were not able to come through with a big hit.”

That’s postseason baseball: be who you are, but bolder. It’s the same reason that Vogt intentionally walked Juan Soto to load the bases for Aaron Judge with one out in the second inning — then took out Bibee after 11 batters, the fewest he’s ever faced in his 59 career starts.

The Guardians have the majors’ best bullpen — and you cannot lose without deploying your greatest strength. So Cade Smith took over for Bibee, held Judge to a sacrifice fly and retired all five hitters he faced.

“We haven’t gone to the ‘pen as early as we did tonight, but the stakes being higher, basically at that point we’re trying to stop the game and stop their momentum,” pitching coach Carl Willis said. “You can’t let the game get away from you. You just can’t. Because if you do, there’s no need for Cade later. And while you may flip the script and all of a sudden you’re like, ‘Oh hell, we used Cade in the fourth’ — but still, we have trust in the other guys, and you have to get to that point. You can’t just bank on getting there.”

Vogt’s predecessor in Cleveland, Terry Francona, has a philosophy about managerial moves: “If I can’t explain this,” he has said, “it’s wrong.” In other words, if a manager has an option that gives the team a better chance to win, there’s really no choice. Take it.

The Fry move backfired. The Soto and Smith moves basically worked. In any case, the Guardians won’t win this series by being passive. Vogt understands that.

And as bleak as things seem for Cleveland, it’s looked this hopeless for other teams, too. Just last October, the Philadelphia Phillies easily won the first two games of the NLCS at home against the sixth-seeded Arizona Diamondbacks. But when the series shifted to Arizona, the Diamondbacks adjusted their pitching strategy, quickly evened the series and won it in seven.

Willis, a reliever for the 1991 Minnesota Twins, has been there, too. In that year’s classic World Series, the Twins took the first two at home but then lost all three in Atlanta before recovering to take the crown.

“We’re going home, and we have one of the best records in the major leagues at home,” Willis said. “It can turn on a dime, and they know that, too.”

It can — and for the Guardians, it must.

(Top photo of Tanner Bibee exiting Game 2 of the ALCS: Dustin Satloff/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Controversy overshadowed the U.K. Mini Series pool championships this past weekend, as transgender competitors Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith were allowed to play. Both Haynes and Smith are biological males. 

Haynes and Smith ended up facing off against eachother in the semifinals after each of them defeated a string of biologically female opponents. Haynes won that match, advancing to the final. There, Welsh woman Kirsty-Lee Davies was the last thing standing in between Haynes and claiming the title in the women’s event. 

Haynes took an early five-frames-to-two lead over Davies to reach the brink of that title. But just then, Davies pulled off a win to stave off elimination, sparking a streak of four straight frame wins to complete the comeback and claim the championship. 

The Women’s Rights Network applauded Davies for her victory, writing: “Despite the best efforts of the pool authorities to scupper her chances by allowing two males to compete in the female category.” However, the WRN also pointed out that both Haynes and Smith, for making it all the way to the final and semi-final respectively, will pick up prize money that “rightfully belongs to a woman.”

The rules of both the English Pool Association and World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF) state that trans-identified athletes are allowed to compete in the sport with absolutely no restrictions, according to their website. Those bylaws for the EPA have been under review since December 2023.

In August 2023, the WEPF announced it was updating their guidelines to only allow those who were “born female” to play the sport.

“We understand that this decision may prompt questions and discussions within our sport. We want to emphasize that our commitment to upholding the values of sportsmanship, inclusivity, and adherence to regulatory standards remains unwavering,” the WEPF said at the time. “Our ultimate goal is to ensure the continued growth and development of the sport we all love, while maintaining a harmonious balance between inclusivity and the integrity of competition. We recognize the importance of fostering an environment where everyone can participate and thrive, and we remain dedicated to upholding these principles to the best of our ability.”

GOP GOVERNOR REVEALS WHY HE ORDERED SCHOOLS TO BAR TRANSGENDERS FROM GIRLS SPORTS

But then, in October that year, the WEPF reversed that protection. It allowed transgenders to compete by enabling their participation under the conditioner that they have identified as female for a minimum of four years, and further submit proof of lowered testosterone levels.

Transgender participation in women’s sports has become an internationally debated issue, and it has become one of the most-discussed issues of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. 

In June, a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents to weigh in on whether trans athletes of both sexes should be permitted to participate in sports leagues that correspond to their preferred gender identity instead of their biological sex, and 65% answered that it should either be never or rarely be allowed. When those polled were asked specifically about adult trans female athletes competing on women’s sports teams, 69% opposed it.

Former president Trump has taken a firm stance against transgender inclusion in his campaign for the White House. Trump’s wife, former first lady Melania Trump, also recently spoke out against allowing biological men in women’s sports in her new memoir “Melania,” despite admittedly disagreeing with most Republican principles on LGBT rights. 

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has taken sweeping actions to enable transgender inclusion. 

In April, the administration issued a sweeping rule that clarified that Title IX’s ban on “sex” discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and “pregnancy or related conditions.” 

The rule took effect Aug. 1, and for the first time, the law stated that discrimination based on sex includes conduct related to a person’s gender identity. The Biden administration insisted that the regulation does not address athletic eligibility. However, multiple experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that Biden’s claims that it would not result in biological men participating in women’s sports were not true and that the proposal would ultimately put more biological men in women’s sports.

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject a Biden emergency request to enforce portions of that new rule that includes protection from discrimination for transgender students under Title IX, after more than two dozen Republican attorneys general sued to block the Title IX changes in their own states.

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LOS ANGELES — It happened in a literal blink, a quiver of Mark Vientos’ eyebrow under his sunglasses when he understood the Los Angeles Dodgers’ decision. They wanted nothing to do with Francisco Lindor, and they preferred Landon Knack face Vientos in a crucial spot.

“All right, you want me up?” Vientos summarized his own look. “I’m gonna show you.”

“There’s one thing that Mark doesn’t lack, and that’s confidence,” Lindor said chuckling. “That’s who he is. I’m glad he took it personal.”

It takes a certain kind of confidence to view that decision by Los Angeles, to bypass your team’s obvious MVP who’d already homered in the game to face you, as disrespectful. But you don’t step into the big leagues at 22 calling yourself “Swaggy V” without that precise level of hubris. And on Monday in Game 2 of the NLCS, Vientos justified that self-belief as he has all season long.

Vientos’ second-inning grand slam was the keynote of the Mets’ 7-3 win over the Dodgers on Monday in Chavez Ravine. A day after being flattened by Los Angeles, the Mets returned the favor to even the series. Game 3 is in Queens on Wednesday night.

SLAMMA-JAMMA@MarkVientos_5 | #LGM pic.twitter.com/UzsPArfiPP

— x – New York Mets (@Mets) October 14, 2024

At this point, it’s no surprise to see the Mets pick themselves off the mat as swiftly as they did Monday. Resilience is the animating impulse of this team, and its belief in its ability to rebound has only strengthened throughout the season.

But belief, like currency, requires something legitimate in reserve backing it up. And so often for the Mets this season, that belief has been fueled by the quality of their at-bats, by the finer points of pitch recognition, of controlling counts, of seizing upon a mistake in the moment.

That belief is built on at-bats like Monday’s biggest from Lindor and Vientos.

Vientos’ at-bat against Knack was a clear pivot point early in the game. The Mets had jumped ahead on Lindor’s leadoff homer, and they’d added one run already against Knack in the second. But Francisco Alvarez had popped up with two in scoring position, and the Dodgers were an out away from keeping the game tight.

Given his reaction to Lindor’s free pass, you might have expected Vientos to be especially aggressive against Knack. But his emerging sense of poise was obvious from the start, when he comfortably took Knack’s strike-to-ball slider to start the at-bat.

“He understands that he’s not bigger than the moment,” Lindor said of Vientos’ approach. “He’s just got to be part of the moment.”

Vientos fouled off a pair of sliders to make it 1-2, then fouled back a hard fastball above the strike zone. Vientos hunts the fastball: More than half his homers this year came on heaters, and he slugged .670 when he put in play four-seam fastballs like Knack’s.

Which is why, when ahead 1-2, Knack threw him four straight sliders — two in the dirt he laid off and two on the plate he fouled off. Eight pitches deep into the at-bat, Knack tried to get a fastball by him on the outside corner. It was right down the middle.

“I didn’t think he was going to give me a fastball,” Vientos said. “My approach was to see a heater up, but I wasn’t expecting heater. I thought I was going to get a slider and I was just going to poke it in the hole.”

And when he saw the fastball?

“Yeah, I wasn’t going to miss it.”

Vientos took it 391 feet the other way to make it 6-0.

“The deeper you get into the at-bat, you’ve got more information,” Lindor said.

“You only have so many tricks,” said reliever Ryne Stanek, explaining the pitcher’s perspective on those long at-bats. “It makes the at-bat substantially harder when you’ve exposed everything you’ve got.”

Vientos is backing up a breakout regular season with a bonkers postseason: Through nine games, he’s hitting .378 with three home runs and a 1.086 OPS. (10/86? That was a good month for the Mets.)

“He’s growing up,” said Lindor.

“He’s been doing special things this whole year,” starter Sean Manaea said. “He’s risen to every occasion.”

Lindor had provided a blueprint for that at-bat one inning earlier, leading off the game. Against Ryan Brasier, Lindor fouled off two fastballs and two sliders before, on the eighth pitch, Brasier resorted to his third-best pitch: a cutter he’d thrown just 12 percent of the time this season.

That, too, was center-cut. Lindor banged it into the Mets bullpen, halting Los Angeles’ 33-inning scoreless streak in the process.

“It just kickstarts everything,” Manaea said. “It’s a new day, it’s a new game. You can’t really start off any better way.”

“(It was big) not just because of the homer but the way he attacked him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He fouled off a couple of pitches, laid off a couple of breaking balls and got a pitch and drove it to set the tone.”

The Mets worked those long plate appearances all day. Jesse Winker had helped spark the rally in the second with a seven-pitch walk. Tyrone Taylor drove in a run despite being down in the count 0-2. Pete Alonso had a 10-pitch at-bat later, even if it ended in a strikeout.

The series now returns to Queens, shortened to a best-of-five with home-field advantage shifting to the Mets.

“We get punched in the face and we continue to find ways to get back up,” Mendoza said. “And it will continue to be that way.”

(Photo of Mark Vientos: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)