MLB Network | Michael Kay STUNNED Blue Jays continues destroys Yankees 13-7 in Game 2 of ALDS

MLB Network | Michael Kay STUNNED Blue Jays continues destroys Yankees 13-7 in Game 2 of ALDS

Yeah, you looked at this pitching matchup and the Yankees were heartened by it because of what you just said, Bob. In every postseason game, there’s drama, there’s excitement. For the Yankees today, it was all disappointment. It was all depression. You had a 19game winner in Max Freed, a guy who has won a clinching game of a World Series going up against Trey Savage, making his fourth career start. And the kid overwhelmed the Yankees and obliterated them. Five and one/3, scoreless, no hit innings. He struck out 11. His splitter was elite. The Yankees only put it in play twice. Meanwhile, Max Freed only collected nine outs. Didn’t have the sharpness or the crispness that he has had. And in a game the Yankees desperately needed to win because you wanted to get one on the road, I think they were embarrassed. I think they were exasperated. Well, there’s not much you could say other than that the Blue Jays totally outplayed the Yankees for two games. Gosman uh just shut the Yankees down. Savage was unbelievable today. And the Yankees were were embarrassed in both games. and you look at their offense, those are tackon runs at the end. There was no pressure on the Blue Jays to shut it down. So, it looks a little bit closer than it was, but it wasn’t close at all. Now, the Yankees have really put themselves behind the proverbial eightball. They’ve got to win three in a row. And one of those is going to have to be at Roger Center, but it all starts on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium with game three. To give up 23 runs in two games against the Toronto Blue Jays and coming into this series, we mentioned that the Blue Jays are a team that puts the ball in play. We also mentioned that they’re a little bit different at this time of the year that they have some guys who can slug now. Baro back in the lineup. Vlatty Guerrero swinging the bat hot the first two days. So the Yankees challenge at the Rogers Center. They were not up for it giving up 23 runs against this Blue Jay team. The only thing they can hang their hat on going back to Yankee Stadium and they have to hope that they can do a better job of pitching and hope that the Blue Jays aren’t the same team that they are at the Roger Center. Well, we’ll talk about the offense coming up in just a bit, but let’s talk about the lack of offense against Trey Savage. It’s our Audi electric moment. Experience a fully electric Audi vehicle at your local Tri-State Audi dealer today. And flash on the pregame, you broke down your Savage and said, “Watch for the arm angle and the way that splitter plays.” Yeah. And the Yankees did not get off to a good start with Christian with a weak swing, then Bellinger with a weak swing. So, what does it tell you, Bob? that yes, he’s got a weird arm angle, but he’s got a devastating split because the Yankees were waving at that split finger. There’s a slider there. But these aren’t competitive swings. I mean, they’re missing by a mile against his split finger. And when he needed to throw a strike, we talked about that, Bob, on our pregame show with his off speed pitches. He did that. It forced the Yankees to swing the bat, and they were just totally dominated. Yeah. And then, Michael, as he got a bigger lead, he just got more emboldened to pound the strike zone. saw with the slider, with the splitter, with the fast ball. He was overpowering. He was absolutely overpowering and they finally take him out just because he hit a pitch count, not because he was um ineffective. 11 strikeouts Blue Jays postseason record, eight strikeouts with the splitter, most in the postseason during the pitch tracking era, which goes back to ’08. Sixth pitcher major league postseason history, five and a third innings pitch and no hits. And he was the Canadian Schlitler today. Yeah, those were your Ford leaders and he absolutely had the strikeout stuff for Jack. He was dominating so much. I think there was a period where he struck out about five or six in a row. Yeah, it was six in a row. And that splitter was just dominant. And I know a lot of folks probably watching at home are saying, “Well, if you know he’s going to throw the splitter, just don’t swing at it.” But that’s what made him so elite today. 29 splitters, 24 for strikes. He got 10 swing and miss. He got 10 for called strikes. So if you think you can just go up there and act as if you’re not going to swing at it, that’s what made the pitch so good. That’s what made the pitch deceptive. And he said before the game, he was built for this moment. And he backed up those words. He did everything that he needed to do to shut the Yankees down. You know, the old adage used to be, you don’t want to give a kid an important start like this. But I think we could look at it another way now. We saw it with Slitler and we saw it with Yes Savage today. Bottom line, if the other team hasn’t seen you, no matter how many times they see you on video, it’s not the same as getting in the box. And by the time you get comfortable, you’re out of the game. And that’s exactly what happened with Slitler against the Red Sox who had not seen him. And then you Savage against the Yankees who had not seen him. So you kind of weigh inexperience and also the other team doesn’t know you. I I’ll I’ll admit that. But there is another level with Slitler and this kid this afternoon, right? Because you’re talking about Schlitler with his fast ball. You Savage with his split finger. I mean, the Yankees were non-competitive offensively against him. And the days where you talk about a young kid pitching in the postseason thinking, well, maybe he’s going to be overwhelmed by the moment. We have not seen it this postseason. Early for the Red Sox looked like he was calm. Slitler obviously did his thing and then your Savage today looked like he was totally comfortable in that environment. Yankee pitchers gave up five home runs in this game. That’s something that has never happened in postseason history for the Yankees. So, the Blue Jays offense at Rogers Center absolutely destroying Yankee pitching today. What were you seeing from Freed today? Uh, Freed did not have a whole lot at the beginning. You could tell that he didn’t have he had a good fast ball, but didn’t have great command. He didn’t have that good change up that he had against the Red Sox. He just didn’t have anywhere to go when he tried to get that cutter in. The Blue Jays were beating him to the spot. And I think you combine a starting pitcher who didn’t have great stuff with a lineup that for some reason at Rogers center, they just put the ball in play. that when he made a bad pitch, they hammered it. When he made a good pitch, they still were able to do something with it. The one thing that jumped out at me, John, and you mentioned it, too, he was throwing 99 miles an hour. That’s not what he does. So, maybe that was a little bit of a sign cuz he didn’t seem like he had feel for his other pitches. The fast ball was there, but the change up wasn’t there. The cutter wasn’t cutting the way it was supposed to, and he got hit often, and he got hit hard, and he got knocked out. And now the Yankees are in a position of being eliminated if they can’t win on Tuesday night. Well, we’ve already brought this up and that’s that Yankee fans can relate to what the Blue Jays are feeling right now. They got it from Cam Schlitler in game three of the wild card and Blue Jays are feeling that way about Treya Savage tonight. Yeah. Imagine you started the season at low A and you end up pitching in the biggest game of the season for your team at the major league level and pitched that way. He had 11 starts at single A this year. He had eight at AA. He had six at AAA. The Blue Jays loved what they saw. They bring him up to the major leagues and he was unfased today. He faced 18 batters. He struck out 11. The Yankees only had one baseball go to the outfield. Similarly, Freed faced 18 batters. 10 of them reached. Seven of them scored. And whereas your Savage had 11 strikeouts. You strike somebody out, they ain’t going to hurt you. Freed only had one strikeout. So that began actually a debacle for the Michael which they’ve now allowed 23 runs in two games. No postseason team’s ever done that. You know, to put it even further perspective, the guy started the season in the Florida State League and he was pitching today in front of a sellout crowd, Rogers Center, a whole country uh behind him and he shut down the New York Yankees who played very very well against the Boston Red Sox to get to this point because when you looked at this series, you said, “Okay, they have to win game one with Gauzeman.” After that, the Yankees have the advantage in the matchups. Freed against you Savage. You’d say, “Well, the Yankees have the advantage.” On Tuesday, it’s going to be Rodon against uh Bieber Bieber. And you say, “Okay, they have the advantage.” Now, they definitely have the advantage in game four because the the Blue Jays are going to pitch a bullpen game against Schlitler. But the only problem is you have to get to game four. Well, as he said, they were on his pitches. We’ve said this before, too. The Blue Jays put the ball in play. They only had five strikeouts again tonight. Not a lot for a major league team, and only one of them at the hands of Freed. Well, the Yankees have to figure something out. I mean, the the Blue Jays are eight- one against the Yankees at Roger Center. And Max Freed has had a Sai Young level season. And if you take out the three starts he had at Rogers Center, it would be even more impressive and even better. He’s been hit hard at Roger Center. And you know, he’s saying things like, “Well, they’re on all my pitches.” Well, the Y’s going to win the series. Max Freed’s going to pitch game five at Roger Center. My advice would be figure it out. What’s going on at Roger Center? Yankees are 4-2 against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. But at Roger Center, they have been overwhelmed. They’ve been beaten up from pillar to post. They’ve got to figure it out. This was a blowout. And Max Freed is a professional and he’s giving the Jays credit. But I think if you read between the lines there, Max Freed is doing some searching of his own because I think he’s wondering why some of his pitches were hit so hard. Guys, he gave up eight hits. Six of them were on the first or second pitch of the at bat. And you heard him toward the end of the interview talking about mixing his speeds and his locations. Michael, you said he needs to figure it out, and he absolutely does. The Yankees would be thrilled to have Freed on the mound for a game five because it would mean that they won the next two. But Flash, how does he figure it out between now and then because he struck me as a perplexed pitcher right there. Yeah, and I think even watching him during this performance after some of the hits, he was kind of shaking his head like what’s going on here? I thought that was a good pitch and they’re putting it in play and racking up some base hits. But he’s just hoping as a competitor he gets another chance to go back to Toronto and try to figure this out. But we’ve said it for a couple of days. There’s something about the Blue Jays. The way they play at home, they’re just a much better offensive ball club. Max Freed, you could tell from that interview, felt like he had really good stuff. I didn’t think he had great stuff. I thought like he was just okay, but he felt like obviously they they knew what was coming. He was tipping. I don’t know what was going on, but there’s a lot of things going on mentally that he wasn’t, you know, talking about a bad pitch here and there. It was the totality of the outing. Well, it’s unbelievable what he’s done. If the Hanes have any intention of getting back in the series, they better slow him down. They better slow down. They better slow Alejandro Kirk down. There’s a lot of people have to slow down. But Vlad Guerrero is the star of that team. He has always hurt the Yankees. He’s always hit for power against the Yankees. But, you know, you thought coming in because he had that that kind of lukewarm September and you see his past with the uh the postseason 3 for 22. You’d be able to slow him down a little bit, but that’s been the complete opposite of what we’ve seen heading into this series. He had not hit a home run in 89 played appearances. You watch what he has done against the Yankees and you say to yourself, I want to go back and watch all 89 because he has destroyed the Yankees. He has terrorized them. It all started yesterday with a change up from Heel. Heel got the first two outs of the game just throwing fast balls. He went backto back change ups against Guerrero. Maybe he helped unlock him because after that home run, we’ve seen a very free and a very confident Guerrero. We talk all the time about the teams that get that first round buy and they get five or six days and maybe they’ll be a little rusty. You feel like with Vlatty, he needed that little break to regroup and whatever he found during the break, obviously rolling it here into the postseason, but he’s such an emotional player. He shows the excitement and you can tell right now from the body language, boy, he is locked in. The way he’s taking pitches is almost more impressive than the way he’s swinging the bat. You know, one thing that we keep mentioning too is that the Blue Jays are not striking out. They’re putting the ball in play, which is they that’s their game plan for all year. But remember one thing, they’re putting the ball in play. The Yankees aren’t playing bad defense. Judge kicked one in right field, but that was inconsequential to the final score. When they got swept in Toronto those four games in July, they didn’t play good baseball. Putting it in play is what hurt them. But this time, they’re putting it in play. They’re putting it in play hard. It’s not soft contact. Not the Yankee defense this time. It’s the Yankee pitching. Yeah, the Yankees have done it before. most recently as you saw in 2017 when they rallied from down 02 to beat the Guardians and advance. And Michael, any Yankees fan that’s glasses half full is thinking back to that and thinking hopefully it can happen again. Well, the Yankees have gone down 02 in four best of five series and they’ve won two of them. So that’s way ahead of the overall percentage. I think Jack said eight out of nine teams lose every time they go down 02. So the Yankees are at 50%. Listen, we’re not trying to put lipstick on a pig. What the Yankees have to do on Tuesday is be where their feet are. They’ve got to win that game. They can’t win about worry about winning three games in a row. You’ve got Rodon on the mound. When I look at the matchup, the thing that scares me about that, the guy that he has the most trouble with is Vlad Guerrero, who is 10 for 17 against him, three doubles, a home run, and five ribbies. That has to stop. They have to they have to slow down Guerrero otherwise they don’t have a chance to win, right? Win game three and tell yourself this is a possibility. I remember Joe Tory, who had so much success as a postseason manager, used to always talk about the momentum shifts in a short series. Think of how the Red Yankees felt after they lost game one to the Red Sox and how that transpired. You get a win in game two, you give the ball to Schlitler in game three, you’re feeling better about your situation. Guess what? You get a win in game three here, you give the ball to Schlitler for a game four, and you’re feeling better about possibly pulling off another comeback. But you’ve got to play a clean game in game three. Rodon has to pitch well and the offense has to show up. One thing I noticed about those highlights, Bob, how did they come back? Big home runs. We haven’t seen that in this series. Well, big home runs, but that Greg Bird home run was a one- nothing victory. So, it was great pitching in that game. And that’s really where it’s going to start for me in game three where the Yankees get back home. Rodon has to come out of the bullpen firing. has to get off to a good start cuz if the Blue Jays get out to an early lead and kind of keep that momentum rolling, that’s when you start thinking some bad thought thoughts. You’re believing as long as Carlos Rodon comes out of that bullpen ready to go. Well, he is going to take the ball in game three of the division series. We go inside the lines courtesy of Motorola Razer Ultra. It’s going to be Rodon against Shane Bieber. Bieber only made seven starts for the Blue Jays this season. So the Yankees again behind Rodon hoping he can put up some zeros and their offense can do something against Bieber. And they have to hope that Bieber’s not as sharp as classic Bieber. Again, he’s coming up from Tommy John surgery. Seven starts in the big leagues. That was a a pretty savvy acquisition for the Blue Jays right before the trade deadline. And now he’s pitching a game that can move them into the ALC. As for Carlos Rodon, 188 batting average against that’s best in the major leagues. I don’t think he’s going to be scared out there. This is a tough offense to slow down. He’s got a big job ahead of him on Tuesday. The Yankees have to play with an urgency. Aaron Boon has to manage with an urgency. Their season is on the line in game three, but they’ve been there before. They had to win two elimination games against the Red Sox. And as much as this trip to Toronto stings for the Yankees in the way that they lost these two games, put a win on the board, get a win and then suddenly you have your young pitcher Schlitler in game four and maybe you’re applying some pressure on Toronto. You get to the postseason, you want it to be special. If the Yankees were ever to rally for three wins and overtake the Blue Jays, that would be pretty special. Yeah. The good news for the Yankees, you’re facing a guy in Bieber that you faced in the past. You’re right. that he had Tommy John surgery. So, you see how he’s going to look, but he’s not going to overwhelm you with his stuff. When you look at his numbers, he doesn’t walk a lot of batters, but he doesn’t strike out a lot of batters. And he’s had a tough time with his change up since he’s come back from Tommy John. So, I look at that and I think about all the lefties in the lineup for the Yankees who have to take advantage of that. A right-hander who doesn’t have a good change up moving away. You’re going to get that slider, you’re going to get that knuckle curve ball in one swing of the bat at Yankee Stadium could change the tide. And just for context, Bieber has not pitched since September 26th. So that’s about 11 days off. Not sure if that’s good or bad for a veteran coming off surgery. Well, we shall see. But I will tell you something. You know, I’m a glass half full guy. I always have been. Judge, Stanton, Rice, they all hit better in their last couple of at bats. So maybe they found something. Maybe a little little bit of a groove. And we’ll see what they do against uh Bieber. They

MLB Network | Michael Kay STUNNED Blue Jays continues destroys Yankees 13-7 in Game 2 of ALDS

#mlbnetwork #newyorkyankees #yankees #bluejays #michaelkay

WATCH MORE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbrX1_3v6wTupQnrHeTariYqEXkW_6hHn

Please comment below your opinion for everyone to discuss.Thank you for watching the video! Don’t forget to subscribe to Baseball News Today and turn on notifications so you won’t miss any daily updates on MLB. See you in the next videos!