Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto deliver knockout punches for the Yankees in ALCS Game 5

They may have won it in five games, but the New York Yankees didn't make it easy in the American League Championship Series.

After splitting great Games 3 and 4 on Thursday and Friday, the Yankees defeated the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 in 10 innings on Saturday night to win their first AL pennant since 2009. The Guardians took an early 2-0 lead, just to watch New York design hitter Giancarlo Stanton hit a tie-breaking two-run home run to tie the game in the sixth inning.

Both bullpens went scoreless in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, and Cleveland pitcher Hunter Gaddis got two outs in the top of the tenth inning. However, Yankees right fielder Juan Soto almost ended matters by blasting a three-run home run into dead center.

The Guardians were quiet in the bottom half of the inning, and New York can rest and wait for the NLCS winner. Here are four takeaways from an unforgettable short series.

On a per-strike basis, Stanton is the 10th-best home run hitter in baseball history — and yet even that statistic couldn't predict his playoff hit against Cleveland.

At seemingly every crucial turn of the ALCS, Stanton hit a home run. It was Stanton who gave New York the lead in Game 3 with a two-run blast; it was Stanton who practically put Game 4 out of reach with a three-run throw; It was Stanton who tied Game 5 with a two-run dinger.

In his three playoff series against the Guardians, Stanton has thrown 41 at-bats and yielded eight hits, TBS' broadcast reported Saturday. All eight – all eight, every single one – were home runs.

There has been a lot of focus on Cleveland's pitching approach this postseason, as the Guardians – who are unusually lacking in quality rotation weapons this season – have put a heavy workload on their bullpen. Pitchers Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin – regular season standouts – all seemed gassed at times in the ALCS.

How was manager Stephen Vogt rewarded for leaving starter Tanner Bibee in the sixth game against Stanton? By Bibee missing his spot – the only truly bad pitch he made all night – and Stanton crushing his offer in the stands at Progressive Field. After a solid start, the wheels of Vogt's bullpen finally came off in the 10th inning, and Gaddis gave the go-ahead home run to Soto.

Fifteen years — the time that has passed since the Yankees' last pennant — may seem small in the grand scheme of baseball history, but for fans in the Bronx it is an eternity. In the decade and a half since New York's 2009 World Series title, the Yankees have said goodbye to their turn-of-the-century core and welcomed a new generation of stars.

Chief among them is midfielder Aaron Judge, who was anointed a future Big Apple icon almost immediately after his breakthrough in 2017. Judge took his fair share of hits in the playoffs and found success difficult with the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox able to handle him on squads. However, New York outlasted its opponents in the late 2010s, flexed its financial muscle to build a star-studded roster around him, and watched Judge develop into a future Hall of Famer. The result: pennant number 41.

In June 1997, the Yankees won a 3-2 game against Cleveland, becoming the first American League team to beat another American League 1,000 times. Although New York would lose to Cleveland in that year's postseason, the statistics underscore the Yankees' complete dominance of owner George Steinbrenner's hometown team.

Amazingly, New York's dominance has become more pronounced, even as the Guardians have remained one of baseball's most effective organizations. With the Yankees' win on Saturday night, they have now ended four of the last eight and three of the last five Cleveland seasons.

Each of the four series has taken on a different character: the ALDS surprise in 2017, the exciting wild card sweep in 2020, the dismal comeback in 2022 and the heartbreaking slugfest in 2024. Time and time again, the two teams have brought out the best in each other, but the Guardians have not delivered the knockout punches needed to move forward – and turn a compelling feud into a truly great rivalry.