Bad news: Post photog interferes

CLEVELAND – An unexpected clobbering of Corey Kluber only heightened the feeling of this being the most maddening and soulcrushing loss imaginable for the Yankees. The Bombers’ refortified lineup bounced back early from its Game 1 shutdown and rocked the supposedly unhittable Cy Young frontrunner, knocking Kluber from the game with early homers by Gary Sanchez and Aaron Hicks. But the retooled bullpen couldn’t preserve a fiverun lead, and the bats turned cold again until Yan Gomes’ RBI single against Dellin Betances in the 13th inning sent the reeling Yanks to a horrifying 9-8 defeat, leaving them in a two-game hole in the AL division series. “We should have won this game. We had it,” Todd Frazier lamented in a sullen visiting clubhouse afterward. “We had a lot of opportunities. We just didn’t get it done.” And now it’s back to the Bronx for the next one, possibly the last one, on Sunday night, with the Yanks’ season precariously on the brink following a stunning collapse, needing three straight wins against a team that has gone 35-4 since Aug. 24.

Twenty years after a first-year closer named Mariano Rivera was tagged here for a gametying ALDS home run by Sandy Alomar Jr., and a decade after the midges swarmed and flustered Joba Chamberlain, these two teams engaged again in as wild and improbable a postseason game as you’ll probably see this October.

“I’m not good at ranking, but it was an honor being a part of that game,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “We don’t just believe in one or two guys. It took an entire team to win that game.”

In the ultimate case of that time-tested mantra of the airwaves – all together now, “you can’t predict baseball, Suzyn!” – ace hurlers on so many playoff teams this week have not lived up to their well-earned billings under the bright lights of October.

That definitely was the case for Luis Severino and Ervin Santana earlier this week, then for Zack Greinke, for Chris Sale and so on.

But Kluber? Virtually zero chance of that happening, right?

Well, the Yankees emphatically flashed two big thumbs down on that theory, making this giveaway loss ultimately that much more unpalatable.

After getting stymied by Trevor Bauer the previous night, few gave the Yankee bats much chance against Kluber, the righty who’d pitched to a miniscule 0.84 ERA in September and a league-best 2.25 mark for the year.

In fact, the first breathless post-game question to Francona following Game 1 began “Terry, genius move starting Bauer tonight” while holding back Kluber until Friday, thereby lining him up either to pitch again in a decisive Game 5 or in the opener of the ALCS if the Indians advance.

Still, the Yanks had Kluber on the ropes right away, forcing him to throw 38 pitches in the opening frame alone and scoring twice on Sanchez’s first career postseason bomb to center.

Frazier picked a terrible time – but a fitting locale, perhaps – to impersonate Roger Dorn The New York Post almost had their very own Steve Bartman. In the 10th inning of ALDS Game 2 between the Yankees and Indians at Progressive Field, Post photographer Anthony J. Causi interfered with a ball that was in play and could’ve cost the Bombers the game three innings before they eventually did lose it. With two outs, Austin Jackson hit a soft grounder that Yankees closer Aroldis from “Major League” with an “ole” whiff of Francisco Lindor’s leadoff grounder for an error, leading to two runs, in the home first. Frazier then was charged with a second error one inning later on a bounced throw to second, setting up Jason Kipnis’ RBI single.

Granted a reprieve in the form of a 3-2 lead, everyone in The Land probably believed Kluber would simply take it from there. Everyone, that is, except the Yankees. Castro laced an RBI single and Hicks clocked a 2-2 hanger for a three-run homer to chase Kluber after he’d recorded just eight outs, his shortest outing of the year.

Kluber, Sale and Severino, the likely top three in the voting for AL Cy Young, have been rocked for 16 combined earned runs over eight playoff innings.

Yet the barrage still wasn’t enough, not against the deep and relentless Tribe. The Yanks didn’t score over the final eight innings after Greg Bird chipped in an important tworun clout for an 8-3 lead in the fifth.

Francisco Lindor clubbed Chad Green for a grand slam one inning later for a one-run game – after Girardi didn’t challenge a hit-bypitch on Lonnie Chisenhall that appeared to nick his bat, not his hand. Ex-Met Jay Bruce then stung the Yanks again with a game-tying solo blast against gassed David Robertson in the eighth.

When pinch-runner Ronald Torreyes inexplicably got picked off second base with the top of the order due up in the 11th, it felt like only a matter of time until the Indians finally walked it off two innings later.

By the end, it was easy to forget that Kluber even had started this game, or that the Yanks had hammered him.

“We played our butts off and it’s tough to lose that one,” Bird said. “At 8-to-3, we were comfortable with that and confident in that, but anything can happen. We’d feel like that if we were on the other side.”

Not sure if this ever has been mentioned anywhere before, but you just can’t predict this game, especially at this time of year. Chapman fielded between the mound and third before spinning and firing an off-balance throw.

The ball sailed behind the bag and Causi stuck his hand out to prevent it from going into the camera well. As a result of what was ruled an interference, Jackson was given second base.

After an intentional walk, Erik Gonzalez flied out to right to end the inning as Jackson was stranded at second.

Causi was nearly as relieved as Joe Girardi that the Yankees got out of the jam.