CLEVELAND – Anthony Volpe delivers his best batting during the most important time of the year.

After a regular season full of ups and downs, Volpe has found consistency in the playoffs and played a key role in the Yankees' advance to the World Series on Saturday night with a 5-2, 10-inning victory over the Guardians at Progressive Field.

“That’s why you play the game, for moments, games and teams like this,” Volpe said after the decisive win. “Everyone is doing their best and we want to do our best.”

The second-year shortstop has now reached base in all nine of the Yankees' postseason games after going 1-for-4 on Saturday night. He is only the eighth Yankee in franchise history to reach base in each of his first nine career playoff games, joining Bernie Williams (15), George Selkirk (14), Derek Jeter (13), Chris Chambliss (11). ), Thurman Munson (11), Charlie Keller (11) and Luke Voit (9).

“I feel like the consistency of his hitting has been excellent throughout the postseason so far,” manager Aaron Boone said before Game 5. “Regardless of whether he has a score on any given day, he has good hitting techniques. It was great to see him and he’s one of the main reasons we’re here.”

Boone has repeatedly suggested that the Yankees' week of practice leading up to the ALDS was key for Volpe to solidify his swing in time to improve his game for the biggest moments of the year.

For the first time this postseason, Boone used Giancarlo Stanton as a cleanup hitter against a right-handed starter Saturday night.

He had previously been hesitant to do this because he did not want to load the top half of his lineup with right-handers and the bottom half with left-handers.

But at that point, with the Guardians' bullpen on fire, he took his chances, with Stanton providing stronger protection behind Aaron Judge than Austin Wells or Jazz Chisholm Jr., who had cleaned up against right-handers earlier in this series.

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It paid off as Stanton, who was named MVP of the ALCS, hit the game-winning home run in the Yankees' decisive pennant victory.

“It’s a heavyweight fight now,” Boone said. “Take the body blows.”

Nestor Cortes threw about 20 pitches in a live batting practice against Oswaldo Cabrera and DJ LeMahieu on Saturday afternoon, the second time he faced batters since being suspended with a left elbow flexor strain.

“Good velo(city), crisp, good command,” pitching coach Matt Blake said. “Good step forward.”

As long as the left-hander continues to recover well, he will face hitters again in a few days, which would make him a likely candidate to be added to the World Series roster.

On Friday, the Yankees and Mets won on the same day for the fourth time this postseason.

Before this October, it had only happened five times in the playoffs – three times in 1999 and twice in 2000.