The Yankees' Gleyber Torres makes up for the earlier faux pas with a big home run late

Gleyber Torres came through with a huge blast in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night, finally giving the Yankees some much-needed breathing room as they extended their season by a day with an 11-4 victory in the Bronx.

This came after a shaky start to the game for Torres, who failed to hit in his first four at-bats from the leadoff position and then made a mistake on defense that contributed to the Yankees losing a run in a one-game lead held on to the lead they had to win.

His slow throw to Anthony Volpe at second base in the fifth inning allowed the Dodgers to score a run when the hobbled Freddie Freeman prevented a possible double play in the bottom of the inning.

Tommy Edman scored on the play, cutting the Yankees' lead to one run.

But Torres more than made up for it by hitting a three-run home run in the eighth that gave the Yankees a 10-4 lead.

“It feels good to be able to help tonight,” Torres said. “We had guys on base and we didn’t score in the first two games. We had to change that.”

What started as a situation where Aaron Boone might have asked Luke Weaver to get the final seven outs of the game before heading to another potential elimination game turned into something of a late breaker, so Tim Mayza came in in the ninth to do it Finish the game and give Weaver some rest for Wednesday.

“Adding Weaver and taking him out of the game was a game-changer for us and will help (Wednesday),” Anthony Rizzo said. “That was the biggest part of that home run.”

Tuesday showed what the Torres experience can be like for the Yankees, as he has made more than his share of mental mistakes throughout his career, but his bat always has the potential to change a game.

Torres was poor on the field for most of the first half of the season, but he responded well to a move to the front and rebounded with a solid second half.

He followed that up with a strong ALDS against the Royals and then an even better performance in the ALCS against Cleveland, but he continued to make mistakes on the field.

Manager Aaron Boone even went so far as to bench Torres during the season and Aaron Judge called out the second baseman, who often responded with big plays.

Follow the Post's coverage of the Yankees in the postseason:

And just before elimination, Torres lacked the urgency needed to make a quick throw to Volpe, while Freeman stormed down the line to narrowly beat Volpe's throw.

Freeman, also playing in his sixth consecutive World Series game, shook off his injured ankle and made it to first just in time after initially being challenged by first base umpire Chad Fairchild.

After Will Smith led off the inning with a home run off Luis Gil, the lead was reduced to one run, and the Yankees got a sure-fire run from Austin Wells, who went deep to start the bottom of the sixth.

And then Torres finally defeated the Dodgers in Game 4 in the eighth.