After last night’s 8-6 loss to the New York Yankees, the Guardians need to invoke the memories of past Cleveland champions to stay alive.

Not the 1920 or 1948 Indians.

More like the 2016 Cavaliers.

Every March 1, Cleveland sports fans greet each other with a hearty “Warriors blew a 3-1 lead.”

They are celebrating the Cavs coming back from a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors, who posted the greatest regular-season record in NBA history.

The Guardians need to pull off the same trick against the 98-win Yankees. This would include two road victories, just like the Cavs did against the Warriors.

So that’s the level of miracle that Guardians fans need. But we know it’s not impossible.

RUST NEVER SLEEPS

Both starting pitchers (Gavin Williams for Cleveland and Luis Gil for New York) hadn’t taken the mound in about three weeks.

Williams began the game by giving up a single to Gleyber Torres and two-run homer to Juan Soto.

Jose Ramirez got a run back for Cleveland with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first.

Austin Wells smacked another homer off Williams in the second inning increase New York’s lead to 3-1.

Josh Naylor finally got his bat going for Cleveland with an RBI single in the third to cut the deficit in half.

Giancarlo Stanton blasted a three-run shot in the sixth inning off Cade Smith to put New York up by four runs.

STAY TUNED

But any Cleveland Guardians fan knows that it wasn’t time to give up and go to sleep. Ramirez hit an RBI double, and Naylor added a two-run double to cut the lead to 6-5.

Playoff hero David Fry came through in the eighth with an infield hit, and Bo Naylor scored the tying run on a throwing error by Yankees reliever Mark Leiter Jr.

Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase entered the game to keep the score tied, but it didn’t happen.

Jon Berti scored on an error at shortstop by Brayan Rocchio, and the Yankees added an extra run on a single by Torres.

Clase has been as fallible in the postseason as he was untouchable in the regular season. Just compare his ERAs (0.61 and 10.29).

Progressive Field will be rocking again tonight as the Guardians try to stay alive. Tanner Bibee will throw the first pitch at 8:08, while the Yankees counter with Carlos Rodon.