For the second playoff series opener in a row, the Yankees failed to hang a crooked number despite loading the bases with nobody out, and the game slipped away.
Down 2-0 in the sixth, the Bombers finally had Toronto starter Kevin Gausman on the ropes with their MVP coming to the plate. It was a golden opportunity for New York to steal Saturday’s ALDS opener on the road and head into a game two with their ace Max Fried on the bump.
Instead, Aaron Judge waved at a bad 3-2 pitch in the dirt, the Yankees only managed one run, and the Blue Jays pulled away late with a 10-1 win to take a 1-0 series lead.
It was a 2-1 game through six innings before Luke Weaver, Fernando Cruz, and Paul Blackburn were tagged late.
The Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out against Aroldis Chapman in Tuesday’s Wild Card Series opener, trailing 3-1 in the ninth. They came away empty, and four nights later, could only manage a bases-loaded walk from Cody Bellinger despite having the heart of their order due up and a previously dominant Gausman on the ropes.
The Jays took all the momentum back after escaping the threat with minimal damage, and responded by jumping all over Weaver Fernando Cruz in a big four-run seventh inning, one that could have looked a lot different had the Yanks grabbed the lead during their bases-loaded rally and turned to their more reliable relievers instead of Weaver, who, like in game one against Boston, failed to record an out.
The Yankees were the antithesis of themselves offensively early on, hunting down first pitches after a season of building a reputation for working at-bats and drawing walks. The strategy against Gausman was clearly to pounce on first-pitch fastballs to avoid his nasty splitter, and the Yanks hacked away.
The process did not pay off, as the Yanks failed to make much meaningful contact on those Gausman fastballs. The result? The Toronto ace breezed through the first five scoreless innings on just 50 pitches, including a four-pitch inning in the top of the third.
Judge laced a single in his first at-bat, but the Yanks struggled to square up much else throughout the afternoon. When they did make quality contact, the Jays defense was ready to shine. In the fifth, Jazz Chisholm flirted with his second hit of the game on a sinking liner down the right field line, but Nathan Lukes charged over and made a diving catch before crashing into the wall. Two batters later, Ryan McMahon lofted a flare into dead center, and Gold Glover Daulton Varsho sprinted in to make a sliding catch to end the inning.
While Gausman coasted through the Yankee lineup, the Blue Jay bats went to work quickly against Luis Gil. Showing no rust after the one-week layoff, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. cranked a first-inning solo shot off a poorly located changeup by Gil, his first home run in nearly a month. One inning later, Alejandro Kirk carried over his hot streak from the end of the regular season and jumped all over a first pitch fastball for a no-doubt blast to double the Toronto lead.
Gil didn’t last through the third inning before Aaron Boone turned it over to the bullpen.
Gausman appeared destined for a long outing, but the Yanks suddenly rallied in the sixth. Anthony Volpe pulled a hanging slider off the left field wall to lead off the frame, becoming the first Yankee to reach second base. Austin Wells lined a single and Trent Grisham worked a walk, loading the bases with nobody out for Judge. In a crucial pivot point in the game, Judge worked a full count before weakly waving at a splitter well outside and below the strike zone for the first out. Bellinger followed with a walk on four pitches to get the Yanks on the board, but Gausman settled down to force Ben Rice to pop out before the Jays went to their bullpen.
The hard-throwing righty Louis Varland came on to face Giancarlo Stanton, and held the lead for the Jays by blowing a 101 mph fastball past the Yankee slugger to end the bases-loaded threat. It was the second time in four postseason games that the Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out but produced an underwhelming result.
The Blue Jays punched right back in the seventh after another outcome eerily similar to the Yankees’ previous series opener. Luke Weaver, struggling for much of the regular season, allowed three straight Red Sox to reach base en route to blowing a narrow lead in game one of the Wild Card Series, and four nights later, once again failed to retire any of the three batters he faced. A leadoff walk followed by two singles to right put Toronto ahead 3-1 and sent Boone out to remove Weaver, who likely fell even further down New York’s bullpen depth chart.
Boone handed the ball to Cruz, who recorded a much-needed out before walking George Springer and serving up a two-run double to Lukes, who jumped on a fat pitch up in the zone to break the game open.
The Yanks, in a familiar spot after dropping another series opener, will turn it over to their ace in Max Fried for game two, where a loss would put them on the brink of elimination.