Yankees’ Aaron Judge talks big ALDS Game 3 home run vs Blue Jays
After Aaron Judge tagged a massive a game-tying three-run home run, he discussed the effort in the Yankees’ ALDS Game 3 win over the Blue Jays.
NEW YORK – Aaron Judge had helped launch the Yankees back in Game 3, and you had to like their chances of taking the AL Division Series to a decisive Game 5.
This was a bullpen game for the Toronto Blue Jays, with an exposed relief corps that faced a tough challenge.
Already a veteran of one spectacular performance in a playoff elimination game, rookie Cam Schlittler did his job, keeping the Yanks within a run entering the seventh.
At a critical time, a fielding error and some unreliable relief – items that plagued the Yankees at times this summer – contributed to a three-run Toronto lead.
But mostly, the Yankees’ lineup failed to produce while the captain kept swinging – to the tune of a .500 postseason batting average and a 1.273 OPS.
As a sellout crowd exited Yankee Stadium, the Blue Jays celebrated their 5-2 victory Wednesday night, advancing to the AL Championship Series against either the Mariners or Tigers.
In the Bronx, it’ll be another bitter winter, with another layer of dust on their 2009 World Series trophy, the last one raised by MLB’s $8 billion franchise.
On a potential inning-ending double play grounder, Jazz Chisholm Jr. watched Andres Gimenez’s grounder kick off his glove for an error, putting Blue Jays runners at the corners.
That ended Schlittler’s night, and two batters later, Nathan Lukes’ two-out, two-run single off Devin Williams gave Toronto a 4-1 lead.
Williams had just struck out George Springer on a steady diet of “Airbender’’ changeups, seven in all. But Gimenez stole second and Lukes saw two fastballs – rifling the second one to left field.
Including opener Louie Varland, eight Toronto relievers somehow limited the Yanks to six hits – two by Judge, including an RBI single off the wall in the ninth.
Giancarlo Stanton was standing on deck as the potential tying run as Cody Bellinger struck out, ending the Yankees’ season.
It was the last in a series of late Yankee chances gone up in smoke.
Nearly 12 months after the Dodgers celebrated their World Series title on the Stadium turf, the giddy Blue Jays danced around the infield and prepared for a wild champagne party.
There was more than a glimmer of promise in the home seventh, Toronto up 4-1, with Judge lurking on deck as the potential tying run – just as he’d been in Game 3.
Judge’s game-tying, three-run homer brought the Yanks all the back from a five-run deficit and propelled them toward a 9-6 victory and a path toward salvation in this ALDS.
Everyone standing and shouting at the Stadium could sense the same drama building – until shortstop Andres Gimenez chased down Trent Grisham’s foul pop, stranding runners at first and second.
In the eighth, the Yankees loaded the bases and brought the tying run to the plate in Austin Wells, who flied out against closer Jeff Hoffman.
Blue Jays starters Kevin Gausman and the rookie Trey Yesavage, the Toast of Toronto for his sensational Game 2 effort, remained possible chips for manager John Schneider, but weren’t used.
As a long winter exercise, Yankees Universe can debate how this 2025 club will be best remembered.
For the grit they showed in shaking off major injuries to ace Gerrit Cole and starter Clarke Schmidt, for staging a late charge for a division title – still winding up tied with Toronto for the league’s best record?
For another MVP-type season by Judge, perhaps his finest regular season, finally crowned by a memorable October moment?
But as we move to the 16th anniversary of their last world championship, 2025 will be remembered for the promising start – a comfortable division lead in June, dissolved by July, and a missed opportunity in early October.
Judge was still there at the end, driving an RBI single off the left field wall in the ninth to go 13-for-26 in his best-ever postseason.
That put a checkmark next to “Impact October,” the one item missing from a Hall-of-Fame career. Yet, it’s still an all-too early October exit for the Yankees and their captain, watching another team celebrate at the Stadium.