Yankees EMBARRASSED by Blue Jays 10-1 in Game 1 of ALDS

Yankees EMBARRASSED by Blue Jays 10-1 in Game 1 of ALDS

Well, Yankees fans, that was a rough one. Uh, game one of the ALDS. Yankees go down in embarrassing fashion, 10 to one to the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto. I’m Ryan Samson. That’s Dan Martin, our New York Post baseball columnist and writer. Uh, that was an ugly one. I’ll start off. Dan, your initial reaction here. What were your takeaways from the Yankees just absolutely getting embarrassed here? Well, Ryan, you know, my my biggest takeaway is it’s just one game, you know. Uh it it looks bad. Uh 10-1 is rough. They uh they finished very poorly. They got a terrible start from Luis Heel. Uh the offense didn’t really show up. Wasted some chances, but really it’s it’s one game. Uh, I think this is the it was obviously the worst matchup of the series on paper for the Yankees just because uh, you know, the Blue Jays have been off for a week. So, they were able uh, to start Kevin Gosman who they wanted to start. The Yankees were forced to go with their number four starter Luis Hill because of playing the Red Sox. Uh, you know, you roll the dice there. You hope Luis Hill return, you know, returns to form from last year, rookie of the year. Uh, he didn’t. Uh, and then, you know, uh, I’d say my my biggest concerns off of this one are Luke Weaver. Yeah. Uh, he just doesn’t look good. Uh, you know, he’s faced six guys in the postseason. They’ve all reached base. Uh, and, uh, you know, hate to keep bringing it up, Aaron Judge. You know, he had a double there at the end. Uh, but he had a chance there. Base is loaded. Strikes out. Huge turning point of the game. not all on him, but man, you know, that was that was a spot where you can you could silence a lot of people uh in that situation, get the Yankees the lead. He didn’t. He strikes out on a a splitter that’s out of the zone on a 3-2 pitch. Um doesn’t make a great throw to to third base. I know people said it looked good, but you know, and now we’re all experts on how hard he throws, including myself. So, I’m looking it up. 90 miles an hour is his average throw. But, you know, that’s an that’s the type of throw that you you’d want to be above average, you know, trying to get a guy out of third base. Um, so look, they’ve got Max Freed tomorrow, uh, against a rookie. Uh, you know, frankly, another concern, they’ve lost all but one game at Rogers Center this year. So, uh, they’ve got to win one game there now to to get past this round because they’re playing their game two. uh if you know they they have to you know figure out a way to win there. Uh they game two there or game five. Um, so it’s, you know, Greg Joyce, our Yankee writer, called it the house of horrors for them this season. And, u, it certainly was today, uh, more than ever before. But I would say don’t panic. Uh, whether they lost today, two to one or 10 to one, they’re a resilient team. Um, they lost game one to the Red Sox. uh no team in including this postseason outside of the Yankees lost the has lost the first game of the wild card series and come back to win a best of three with this format. So they did that. Um there’s no reason to believe that they can’t win three out of the next four games. But if you want to, you know, if you want to shake your head at a few things here today, you can because this was uh this is not a pretty pretty way to start. No, it definitely wasn’t a pretty way to start. And I think you summed up a lot of the points that I wanted to highlight here. The first being the difference in this game really was a matter of who took advantage of the bases loaded opportunity that they had. Judge had the bases loaded, nobody out. And to be honest with you, Dan, his approach didn’t seem great. And I didn’t love the Yankees approach. We can talk about a little bit at the plate against Gosman overall being very aggressive early on in the count. But with Judge, he swings at a pitch that was clearly a ball for even out of the hand of Gosman. Never was going to be a strike. And I haven’t seen Aaron Judge swing at a strike like that. a ball like that probably since his rookie year in 2017. Do you get a sense that maybe this is starting to build? Because the narrative is out there about Judge in October. We even heard I believe Joe Davis mentioned in the broadcast strikes out at a 40% clip in October. It’s in crazy. His batting average is in the 100s. So, do you think this is starting to stack on Judge the October narrative? I think it has for a while now. I mean, the turning point in his postseason career uh was 2018. you know, he homered three games in a row. He was a good postseason player, maybe great. I don’t know remember exactly what the numbers were. Uh but that, you know, they beat the Red Sox uh in that round, one of the games, the last game at Fenway Park. He walks out with the New York New York blaring out of the stereo, which was very uncar uncharacteristic for the Yankees and for him. And man, he he has not hit in the postseason since then. Uh he had I think went four for 11 in the ALDS. Uh so that’s fine, but no real damage, no extra base hits today. He had a hustle double there, but that’s not what you’re looking for from Aaron Judge. You’re looking for what Vlad Guerrero did or Alejandro Kirk did. Uh you know, you’re looking for a big difference. So look, it’s it’s it’s a narrative. They don’t like to talk about it. They get def the Yankees get defensive about it whether it’s Aaron Boon or Aaron Judge. Um but this is not going to help whether he you know I get he had two hits today. Uh and he did not lose the game by himself but if you’re looking to change the narrative this is not going to do it. No it wasn’t. And that was again a grand opportunity. And when you look at it, the only run the Yankees manufactured was during that sequence where Judge strikes out, Bellinger gets the walk, and then again, Ben Rice comes up and I think he looks a little overmatched now. Ever since that home run he hit, he’s been going through it a little bit since these last two games. You know, he I think you see Bellinger walk on four straight pitches. I wish Ben Rice would have taken that first pitch. Goes another ball. It feels like he’s pressing a little bit now, too. Um, it’s just when you have that bases loaded opportunity, nobody out, and Judge Bellinger, Rice, and Stanton, and you can only muster one run, Dan. That’s a that’s a big issue of why you’re not going to win this baseball game. Yeah, I mean, it was a bad a bad game, a bad inning, a bad sequence, but I will say, you know, Kevin Gawson’s a pretty good pitcher. Uh, and he was on, so sometimes that happens. A good pitcher can beat a good lineup. Uh I I hear what you’re saying about the aggressive approach didn’t really work. They only forced them to throw I think 50 pitches in the first uh five innings. They did get him out in the uh sixth because uh you know the Blue Jays were aggressive with their bullpen. That didn’t help. Um so yeah, I’m sure if they had to do it over again, maybe be a little bit more patient. Uh definitely the Ben Rice at bat, you need to take a pitch there. Uh not a great matchup for him. I don’t know if he’s pressing or not. He’s a young still a young player. this is his first real experience in the postseason. Might have been a tough matchup for him with Gausman with the splitter. Uh I wouldn’t go crazy over overall with with what he’s done, but you know, that was just a pitcher rising to the occasion and the Yankees not, you know, the judge that that 3-2 swing didn’t look great from Aaron Judge. Um you would like to think that after the Bellinger walk that would kind of spark the inning again. it didn’t. So, look, even after that inning, it’s two to one. You know, you’ve got Gossman out of the game. Um, you think maybe a bullpen game. Yeah, that didn’t that didn’t uh didn’t help him. And then, you know, Fernando Cruz has been good. He gives it up. Um, and then Weaver implodes. What’s unfortunate for the Yankees is, you know, once he’ll they get Heel out of the game, uh Tim Hill and uh Dval are just lights out. Yeah. So, you kind of waste that performance of both of those guys. Hill’s durable. He’s good. Uh you weren’t sure what you were going to get from Dval because he’s been Well, he was terrible early on two innings tonight. Yeah. I mean, he was lights out. So, after the sixth inning, you’re looking at you’re like, “Wait, you know, Luis Hill kind of blew up on us, but we’re through six. We’ve only given up two runs. uh we haven’t used any of our high leverage guys really. I mean you can argue that Tim Hill might be but you would you would take that for the most part and then just things fell uh fell apart. Um I think I I would you know baseball’s funny but certainly the Yankees are aware of what we just talked about. You’ve got bases loaded. It’s two nothing then it’s 2-1. They think that they’re going to get back in the game. They probably think they’re going to have a five run inning. It doesn’t happen. you know, it’s deflating for everyone. Um, so that might have been an impact, but you know, you just don’t know. This time of year, it’s tough. Uh, anytime you go to the bullpen, you just don’t know really what you’re going to get from from anyone. Yeah. So, you’re rolling the dice there that, you know, Boone rolled the dice by getting uh, Luis Heel out of the game in the third inning. Just I thought that was really aggressive by Boone to say, “I need a It was I mean, he he he on the broadcast they were saying they thought Heel was coming around. Um, but Boon said later when they interviewed him during the game, you know, he just wasn’t getting the, you know, wasn’t locating his pitches, wasn’t executing well enough. Uh, so they did what they thought they had to do and clearly you can’t argue with that because it worked, it worked perfectly. Uh, and like I said, they got where they wanted to be. You’re down 2-1. You’re in the sixth inning. That’s when it’s Luis Heel versus Kevin Gospin in Toronto. Uh, that’s a pretty good every time as as a fan and also the team. And I think Dan, you had highlighted before about Luke Weaver. Um, so look, you said it, six batters he’s faced this postseason. He has not recorded an out. Am I crazy to say as a fan, you cannot trust Luke Weaver right now until it’s in a non like pressure situation? I mean, he’s he’s clearly doesn’t have it right now. Yeah. I mean, I think that the other issue is that he hasn’t had it really for a while. Um, you know, he was such a a huge part of last year’s team of their playoff run, dominant, you know, took over as closer, did everything they asked of him. Uh, this year it just hasn’t been the same, uh, throughout the year. Inconsistent. Uh, and now I, you know, he’s just a guy that if it’s a lopsided game, you throw him in for an inning and maybe try to get him back on track. Uh, certainly not tomorrow, but maybe at home. But yeah, it’s got to be the right spot because you can’t look at him as Luke Weaver right now. You have to look at him as a guy who’s lost and uh you know, way way way down on the totem pole in terms of who you would go to in a in a big spot. Yeah, I completely agree with you. Uh it’s just it’s uh this one stinks, man. If it’s very reminiscent of game one of the Red Sox where they had the bases load in the ninth, nobody out, and they still don’t get they don’t get a run there. Um, and tonight feels very similar in the fact that, like you said, the sixth inning, you got your horses, you got your guys you want up at the plate. You wouldn’t want anyone else besides Judge Stanton, Bellinger, Rice up at the plate in that situation, and they just can’t muster more than one run. Um, Dan, going forward, like you said, the Yankees are facing a rookie pitcher and you Savage tomorrow. They have their their ace Max Breed on the mound. Is this a must-win for the Yankees tomorrow in Toronto? It’s only a best of five here. I mean, I would say so. Yeah. Uh, just what you said, you know, you’ve got the Today you had the worst matchup you could have. Tomorrow you have the best matchup you can have. You’ve got Max Freed who’s had one of the top three four seasons in in baseball for a starting pitcher against a guy who I think has made three starts in the majors, maybe four. Uh, you know, they like him. He’s good. He’s a good prospect. But, uh, and we saw what what, you know, Cam Schlitler did for the Yankees. Yep. Yes. It’s a mustwin. You know, you can’t you can’t have Max Reed lose a game, go down 02 uh to the stadium. Could they could they find their way back from that? Yeah, but I mean, tomorrow uh tomorrow would be time to panic if if they don’t turn it around. Tonight is not tomorrow. They Yeah, they they need to win. But that’s why you sign Max Max Freed to an $218 million contract for games like this. Uh, and this is why, you know, a lot of people like the Yankees chances in a in a series like this because they were they were they have a deeper rotation. Uh, the Blue Jays are banged up. That’s why they have to go with this inexperienced rookie in game two because Bassid is is out and Max Sherzer is out and wasn’t pitching that great anyway. Um, you know, the the Blue Jays are going with a rookie probably in Toronto so he doesn’t have to deal with Yankee Stadium. Uh, you know, that atmosphere. So you they need Max Freed to be Max Freed. You know, he they lost their first game with him pitching in in the postseason, but he pitched great. He did everything they could have asked. You know, if he does that again tomorrow, I have to believe the Yankees are going to score more than uh than one run and and they’ll be okay. But yeah, you need Max Freed to be Max Freed tomorrow. Uh not to settle their nerves because I I don’t think they’re going to be that rattled by this even though the score got out of hand. Yeah. you know, that’s partially just, you know, not high leverage situations. Paul Blackburn, you know, struggling there in the eighth and the ninth inning. So, uh, you know, when when we were asking questions after game one of the wildard round, you know, Aaron Judge said, “We’ll be we’ll be fine.” And then when they won, he said, “Yeah, you didn’t believe us. We I told you we’d be fine.” So, I’m sure he’s saying the same thing tonight, and they have every reason to believe that it will be fine. But yeah, it’s it’s a bit of a gut punch to uh to go up to Toronto where you’ve had problems all year long and to get uh you know to get smacked around like this. It’s not a not a good start, but not devastating. It’s not devastating. And like you said, if if things don’t fall apart here in the end and they can punch through more than one run, it feels like if this would have been a way different game, you probably had a really good chance to win the game as well. Um one thing I want to ask you about the offense as well besides Judge John Carlos Stanton. Uh we saw him have the big hit uh you know in game three in the Red Sox, but before that he was 0 for eight in the Red Sox series. He goes 0 for four again tonight. Um it feels like the Yankees really need to get him going too. He was such an X-factor for them the last couple postseason runs. Obviously being the the the force he is in the lineup. Can he be that that factor for them tomorrow? Like it feels like if Judge is not going to be judge, you got to rely a little bit more on drunk Stan to be what he’s been in the postseason recently. Yeah. Um I think he I I don’t think he looks that bad. I don’t want to sound like Aaron Boons who says everyone looks fine no matter what’s going on, but when Jen Carlos Stanton is struggling, slumping, looking bad, nobody looks worse, right, when right he’s missing pitches by two feet. I don’t see that right now. Um in the in the Red Sox series, he hit a couple balls, 115, hit him on the ground, which is not good. Uh it’s not an excuse, but he I don’t think he’s that far off. Um, it was weird that that ball didn’t go out. You never see that from him against the Red Sox between a ball going that hard and not leaving the stadium and then him mis misjudging it to to that extent. Um, so I I think he’s I think he’s going to be okay. Uh, but yeah, they they need him to to be better. They need almost everyone to be better offensively except for Anthony Vulpi who, you know, we we pulled our hair out about all year and now he’s uh he’s proving himself to be a very dependable postseason player. You know, he obviously turned it around there after the cortisone shot in the regular season and and finished strong, but he looks he looks just like he did last October. Um hitting the ball hard, playing a good shortstop. Uh so that’s a that’s a good sign, you know, that that they seem to have straightened him out or he’s straightened himself out. uh and that they might have a guy who’s going to be inconsistent during the regular season, but who’s going to answer the belt uh pretty much regularly this time of year uh which is vital if you’re going to be uh you know a shortstop for the Yankees. So maybe this will you know the postseason is far from over but his performance through the first handful of games here in his second postseason that that’s matching the last year’s postseason. Maybe that relaxes him a little bit. Maybe that takes some of the heat off of him next year if he’s up and down. Um, but he looked pretty good. But yeah, look, the the Yankees, all we talk about Judge and Stanton, that that’s what separates this offense from other offenses. That’s why they led the majors in homers with 274, 244, whatever it was. They hit a ton more home runs than anyone else in the majors. Uh, those two guys need to do, one of them certainly needs to do something. Um, and they they haven’t. I’d be more concerned about Judge than I am about Stanton because Stanton all of a sudden he makes one tiny little adjustment and those hard ground balls turn into, you know, 420 foot home runs. We haven’t seen that from Judge. Um maybe this double that, you know, the two hits and the double that he had for for Judge, maybe that does get him going, but uh you know, his arm isn’t right. I don’t know. Uh you know, it didn’t affect him towards the end of the season, but we saw tonight that the Blue Jays took advantage of that. uh like the Red Sox did as well. I would see I would expect that to to continue to be the case in in situations on ground uh base hits to right with a guy on first taking the extra base consistently going to third. So, uh you know, they’re they’re legitimate questions. Not so much that they can’t overcome them, but look, they want to win a World Series. So, if you’re not going to get anything out of Luke Weaver, if Judge isn’t going to be judge, you know, Juan Sto is not bailing you out right now. That’s the thing. So like you need that’s why that’s why you’re saying you’re not worried about Stan so much. You need Stan to be Stan in the playoffs if Judge is not going to judge. Yeah. And you’re not playing the Guardians and the and the Royals. So yes. Although, you know, I I I will say that the Blue Jays, one of the things that’s been uh a criticism of theirs is that, you know, they they have big expectations regularly and they fall short. Uh this year they they managed to to hold off the Yankees to their credit to win the division, get the top seed in the American League, but uh they hadn’t won a playoff game, I think, in in since 2016. They’ve only made the playoffs three times since then. They got swept. So, you know, I I guess that that’s another tough uh pill for the Yankees to swallow. They’ve given them more confidence than they already had. Um, I’d be worried about Vlad Guerrero if I’m a Yankee fan because he obviously loves playing against the Yankees, hitting against the Yankees and he showed it tonight. Uh, one the probably the most surprising thing to me is that he made that diving play at first base and turn it into a double play. Uh, I expect him to do what he did with the bat, but not not with the glove. But yeah, if he gets if he gets rolling, you know, Alejandro Kirk is just one of those guys that you don’t know how he does it, but and I looked at the numbers, his numbers, you know, nothing special, but I don’t know. I just feel like I feel like he’s always doing something against everyone, you know, anytime you watch him, he’s doing something good. Uh, and he today he was great. So, you don’t want to give the Blue Jays reason to to believe and they gave him a little bit tonight. Um, Max Freed can take a lot of it away tomorrow and then you feel a lot better going home with Carlos Rodon on the mound. Uh, you know, for game three, but you got you have to do it. You have to you have to quiet down Vlad Guerrero. You can’t let Alejandro Kirk beat you. Uh so and it doesn’t matter if it’s two to one tomorrow and judge you know doesn’t get the big hit even if it’s you know who Trent Gisham with a with a bleeding single to to left or whatever to to to to win the game. You just have to win tomorrow and then you figure it out when you get home. But yeah, you talked about the narrative of Aaron Judge, the narrative of of his postseason struggles. That’s going to continue until he does something to turn that around. Um the bullpen the high leverage guys looked fine in in the last series. So you can without Luke Weaver though you’re gonna be doing this without Luke Weaver pretty much it feels like because I don’t think Boon can go back to him right now in this series. You know what I mean? I agree. But maybe Dval just maybe maybe he’s Luke Weaver now, you know. Yeah. And you were hoping Fernando Cruz maybe earns more opportunities. I mean it stinks he gave up the hit tonight and you’re like uh you know he was laboring a little bit. It just it feels like this team needs their stars to perform, right? Like that’s how it’s been all year for them. And and the biggest guys like you’ve hammered on home are Judge and and right now Weaver. Uh those two guys are killing them right now. And and I know you’re saying don’t don’t panic. I’m trying not to, but it doesn’t look great right now today. Uh doesn’t feel great heading into a game two. I do feel confident the fact that the Yankees have the pitching matchup advantage in Max Freed to this rookie is Savage, but I’ve seen a lot of Yankees lineups struggle against rookie pitchers because they haven’t faced him much. So, I’m begging you, Dan, call Greg, call Joel, tell these guys they got to tell the lineup. Start taking pitches. Don’t let the rookie settle in and just hit on swing on the first pitch and try and jump on it because it feels like they’re getting this MO and and scouting report. I I know you know this. They’re getting the scouting report from the guy from the coaches saying, “Hey, this guy loves loves throwing first first strike pitches, jump on the first fast ball you see, and if it’s in the strike zone swing, the Yankees just aren’t hitting that that first pitch. They’re not hitting it well, right?” Like, they’re attacking it, but they’re just constantly hitting the ground outs, constantly hitting the popups. So, it feels like the approach, they’re not making the opposing starters work. And I’m tired of seeing a Gossman and a guy like last round and in in Crochet just retire 10 to 17 batters in a row in the lineup. And before you know it’s like, oh my god, we’re down two runs in the eighth or ninth inning, you know. Right. Right. I mean, Crochet is, you know, arguably the best pitcher in the in baseball. Uh Gman is a is a very good starting pitcher, experienced. I went back and looked, he he didn’t have a lot of postseason success until today. But, uh, but he’s good. I got to believe they can figure out a way to to go to go up against this rookie. He’s not Paul Ste tomorrow. Um, I hear what you’re saying about they they’ve had tr diff difficulties with uh rookie pitchers and facing them. Um, they don’t, you know, they’re not, they shouldn’t have to score five runs tomorrow. They should only have to score three. So, I like their chances against a guy who’s made three major league starts. Um, it’s hard to chuck chuck down this Yankee offense two days in a row. Uh so I I think for one game they’ll be okay tomorrow. Um the bigger picture, the things that we’re worried about if you’re a Yankee fan that that those are legitimate things, but in terms of what to look for in game two, I would look for the Yankees to take advantage of a young pitcher who’s not dominant. He’s good, not dominant. They’ll have a good approach. Uh I’m sure they’ll have learned some lessons from tonight. Um, and then they’re just going to hand the ball to Max Reed. I I think that’s what when you when you go to bed tonight, that’s what you think about. You’re like, we sign Max Reed for a game like this. Pitching on the road. Um, pitching, you know, a left-handed guy. Maybe that throws Toronto off. Everything went Toronto’s way today. That’s not going to happen tomorrow. So, that makes you feel good as a Yankee fan. What doesn’t is the fact that their their bullpen is a little bit limited and yeah, you need the stars to to slug. So does everyone though, right? I mean, you know, the Blue Jays won today because Guerrero was Guerrero. Um the Yankees need that to happen. He hadn’t been in the postseason until today. His numbers in the in the in his brief playoff career until today were were atrocious. Uh so you hope you didn’t unlock something there and then all of a sudden he doesn’t go on a tear. Um but the Yankees have too much talent to uh to not come back from this this kind of defeat. There was no panic when they lost at home uh to Boston in the last round. I don’t think there will be any tonight. So yeah, you’ve got you’ve got some question marks, but nothing I don’t think that anyone uh didn’t expect that right that that you know, no one is shocked that the Yankees are down one game to none in this series. Uh they they will be shocked if they’re down two games to none. All right, that’s Dan Martin talking Yankees fans off the ledge like myself and I’m sure a lot of you watching him here as well. Uh look, we’re going to talk to Dan again tomorrow after game two. uh if the Yankees can even up the series, if they’re down 02, it’s going to be a very dark show for me and Dan. I’m just telling you right now. Uh but I appreciate you, Dan, for giving you time and and uh breaking down this game. and we’ll talk to you tomorrow and see what happens with Max Breed and the Yankees as they as they take on the Blue Jays for game two and try to even

Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees take on Kevin Gausman and the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS Game 1.

Postgame live reaction with Ryan Sampson and NY Post beat writer Dan Martin.

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