Trevino says he's going to walk it off for Yankees ... then does

NEW YORK -- It was around the sixth inning on Wednesday, and Jose Trevino was observing his teammates from the comfort of the trainers’ room, deep within Yankee Stadium’s catacombs. Struck by a premonition that his services would be needed later in the evening, the catcher remarked to starter Clarke Schmidt: “I’m going to get a walk-off in this one.”

Schmidt nodded, having seen this act before. The author of a pair of memorable game-ending celebrations last season, Trevino would soon add another to his tally, connecting for a pinch-hit single off Trevor Stephan as the Yankees rallied for a 4-3, 10-inning victory over the Guardians at Yankee Stadium.

“This is great; these are the true Yankees fans right here, sticking around through it all,” Trevino said, waving his arms wildly in front of the first-base dugout.

Trevino delivered the deciding knock in the Yanks’ third walk-off win of the year, a game that featured contributions from recent callups Willie Calhoun and Jake Bauers, plus a couple of concerning moments regarding Harrison Bader and Oswald Peraza.

Calhoun launched a fifth-inning homer and delivered a game-tying hit in the ninth, while Bauers cleared the wall for his first long ball in pinstripes, also a fifth-inning shot off Guardians starter Shane Bieber. Calhoun’s poke to the right-field seats was his second in as many nights, continuing a hot stretch that has seen him hit safely in six of his last seven starts.

“Any time you can come up and get big hits to help the team win, it’s a nice boost for the club,” Calhoun said. “I felt like the energy was there the last few nights. Even though we were down early, the energy in the dugout was upbeat. It just had a different vibe to it. We knew that we would come back, scrap together runs and make it a ballgame.”

Having reworked his swing during the offseason, Bauers hit nine home runs in 69 at-bats at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, prompting his promotion to help the Yanks’ injury-ravaged roster.

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Bauers soon joined their ranks, crashing into a wall during his first inning of action on Saturday at Texas. His bruised right knee had improved enough by Wednesday that he could homer in his second at-bat of the night against Bieber, a teammate with Cleveland in 2019 and ’21.

“Listen, he’s got a Cy Young [Award] for a reason,” Bauers said. “He’s a great pitcher out there, a tough at-bat. I do have some at-bats off of him, so I feel like I had a fairly decent idea of what he was going to try to do. I definitely felt like I was prepared.”

Cleveland briefly took the lead in the ninth as closer Clay Holmes faltered for the second time in the series, having relieved Ron Marinaccio with two outs and no one on. Marinaccio had retired all five batters faced, but since he also pitched Tuesday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone did not want to push him further.

“Look, I understand with Clay, there’s been a couple of outings,” Boone said. “Obviously, we’ve got to get him to the Clay we know, but he’s a lot closer to that than the noise.”

Myles Straw doubled to greet Holmes before Oscar Gonzalez blooped a shallow pop for a run-scoring “Bermuda Triangle” hit that eluded Bader in center field. Bader left the game after appearing to take a knee to the head from left fielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Boone said that Bader -- who just returned from the injured list on Tuesday -- would undergo testing but seemed to be in “really good spirits.”

“It was just a perfectly placed free-for-all,” Kiner-Falefa said. “No one called it off. We both went full-sprint. Both of us really wanted the ball, and this was a situation where two guys really wanted to make a play to save the game. It was a tough one, but I’d rather have that kind of effort than jogging and letting it drop.”

Calhoun came to the rescue in the home half of the ninth. Facing hard-throwing closer Emmanuel Clase, Anthony Rizzo singled and Peraza pinch-ran to steal second base, though the latter was hobbled on the basepaths after rolling his right ankle and would undergo X-rays.

The gloom lifted as Calhoun then stroked a game-tying hit to left, scoring new pinch-runner Aaron Hicks and continuing a pleasant surge that Calhoun said has been like “a dream.”

“I’ve always believed in my ability to hit the ball, and I’ve always been able to be a threat in the batter’s box,” Calhoun said. “The last few years, I’ve been banged up and wasn’t able to be fully capable of that. Going into this spring, I just tried to make sure I stayed healthy to go out there and give it my best shot.”