Well, that didn’t quite turn out the way the Toronto Blue Jays had expected.
The Jays exploded—again—for a commanding 6-1 lead in Game 3 of the ALDS in the top of the 3rd inning Tuesday night. But a funny thing happened on their way to what looked like a sweep of the New York Yankees in the best-of-5 series. Turns out, there were still six and a half innings to go, and the Yankees flipped the script.
Let’s take a look at three main reasons the Bronx Bombers took Game 3 by a 9-6 count and now have a chance to even the series Wednesday night.
1. Uncharacteristic Defensive Woes for Blue Jays
One of Toronto’s main calling cards during the 2025 season was their strong defense, all across the diamond.
“We just didn’t play our game,” said manager John Schneider. “When you look at things as a whole, just defensively, giving them extra outs, they can do that in a hurry. It’s not one thing, it’s a couple of things.”
It was more than a couple of things, really. But the questionable insertion of Anthony Santander in right field was one of the main things. That move led directly to one of the most obvious miscues of the game, when he dove and missed a soft liner to right, making a spectacular pratfall as the ball rolled past.
Santander, who missed most of the season due to injury, played only 16 games in RF all year, and a potential clincher in the ALDS just didn’t seem like the right time to get him back out there.
There were other errors as well. Third baseman Addison Barger dropped a pop fly, which eventually led to the big blow, which we’ll get to in a moment.
2. The Bullpen
That old bugaboo that haunted the Blue Jays all season came back to haunt them in a big way. After Shane Bieber failed in his first playoff start for the Jays, a stream of pitchers out of the bullpen proceeded to cough up the big early lead.
Truth is, we got a hint of this in the latter part of Game 2, when the Yankees scored six late runs off the Toronto bullpen in the 13-7 loss.
Tuesday, four straight relievers trotting out of the ‘pen gave up runs to help seal the Jays’ fate in Game 3.
3. Aaron Judge was… Aaron Judge again
While Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has stepped up to lead his team with big home runs in this series, it wasn’t until the 4th inning of Game 3 that Aaron Judge went into his phone booth and emerged with the long-awaited cape on his back. His 3-run rocket off the left field foul pole turned this series on its ear, transforming a 6-3 deficit at the time into a 6-6 tie.
The rest, as they say, was history.
Now, the Blue Jays will have to try to avoid a history-making collapse. They crumbled in embarrassing fashion in their previous two playoff appearances, short Wild Card Series flops in 2022 and 2023. But if they don’t win one more against the Yankees, those will pale in comparison to 2025.
Louis Varland, the reliever who surrendered Judge’s Ruthian blast, will start for the Jays in a bullpen game Wednesday night. With starters Chris Bassitt, Max Scherzer and Jose Berrios all left off Toronto’s ALDS roster, they have no other choice.
