Jazz Chisholms Jr.s late homer, bullpen propel Yankees past Guardians

CLEVELAND — On a night when the Yankees wanted Gerrit Cole to pitch like an ace and pick up an overtaxed and short-handed bullpen, the opposite happened.But a win’s a win.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.

Five relievers combined to throw five scoreless innings behind Cole, and Jazz Chisholm Jr.hit a tiebreaking eighth-inning home run to lift the Yankees to a 3-2 victory against the Guardians in front of 27,154 at Progressive Field on Tuesday night.Cole wasn’t sharp at the wrong time, given that the Yankees burned through seven relievers Monday in a 10-inning win.

There was double-barreled action in the bullpen during the fourth, which Cole escaped unscathed on his 83rd and final pitch.Making his fourth start after Tommy John surgery and his second straight against Cleveland, Cole ran out of gas after allowing two runs on two walks and five hits — all singles, including one that was about a foot from clearing the 19-foot wall in left field — while striking out four.But Paul Blackburn, Tim Hill, Camilo Doval (2-0), Jake Bird and Fernando Cruz came to the rescue, even though all but Cruz were pitching for at least the second straight game.Blackburn tagged out a runner steps from home plate on a failed squeeze bunt.With David Bednar unavailable after throwing 38 total pitches over back-to-back games, Cruz recorded the final five outs for his first save.

His biggest out was inducing a fly ball to center field from slugger José Ramírez with two on and two out to end the eighth.Then Cruz struck out the side in the ninth.“He may not have one in the column, but he’s saved our bacon a bunch of times this year,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game.“He’s put out so many fires for us in the biggest moments of the game.”With the score tied 2-2, the Guardians kept Tim Herrin in the game after his scoreless seventh specifically to pitch lefty-...