David Brown|published: Wed 8th October, 08:45 2025
Even though the Yankees still trail in the American League Division Series, their season isn’t over yet. They might even have the Blue Jays right where they want ’em.
Judge’s score-tying three-run blast, along with Jazz Chisholm’s go-ahead solo shot, helped the Yankees overcome a five-run deficit in a 9-6 victory in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.
Judge added an RBI double and an intentional walk to finish 3-for-4. He is 11-for-22 in the postseason.
Game 4 in the best-of-five series is scheduled for Wednesday night in the Bronx, with rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler set to take the mound for the Yanks. Schlittler struck out 12, tossing eight scoreless innings against the Boston Red Sox, to close out the Wild Card series this past week.
The Blue Jays, who won the AL East in a tiebreaker with New York but have endured multiple starting pitcher injuries and breakdowns late in the regular season, are said to be planning a bullpen game.
They could end up regretting not putting away the Yankees when they had the chance.
The Blue Jays, who came in having blown out the Yankees twice at Rogers Centre over the weekend, put themselves in position for a three-game sweep by jumping ahead 6-1 in the third inning against left-hander Carlos Rodón. Their own star slugger, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., hit a long two-run homer in the first (his third homer of the series), and made a demonstrative head-first slide into home plate in the third on Ernie Clement’s RBI single.
Judge, who came in without a postseason homer, took out a big eraser on Guerrero’s exclamation point in the bottom of the fourth.
His team trailing 6-3 with two runners aboard against right-hander Louie Varland, Judge swung and missed for strike two at a 100-mph fastball thrown down the middle. The next pitch, a 99.7 mph heater, came several inches inside (an estimated 1.2 feet from the center of the zone, per MLB), and just above the belt on the 6-foot-7 slugger. Judge somehow swatted it 103.1 mph, sending the ball an estimated 373 feet and high off the pole in left. It also sent Yankee Stadium into bedlam.
MLB researcher Andrew Simon said Judge’s homer was the first in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) that came on a pitch thrown at least that hard and that far inside. It was his 17th career home run in the playoffs in 288 plate appearances.
Toronto might have taken the lead back in the fifth, but Judge laid out for a diving catch in right against Anthony Santander with Clement leading from second.
An inning later, Chisholm also connected against Varland on a bat-dropping, tie-breaking homer to give the Yankees a lead they did not relinquish. New York’s bullpen, a five-person collective closed by right-hander David Bednar, finished with 6 2/3 scoreless innings.
The Blue Jays had an 89% chance of advancing to the AL Championship Series after they took a 2-0 lead in the ALDS. They still can do it by winning one of the next two games, including a potential Game 5 back at home, if necessary, with better-rested options at starting pitcher. Right-hander Kevin Gausman would be going on three days of rest in Game 4 — and the Jays might use him anyway. In a potential Game 5 on Friday, rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage would have four days of rest to follow up his domination of the Yankees on Sunday.
But the Jays have more worries than an imperfect starting pitching plan. In addition to crumbling on the mound in Game 3, they made multiple miscues on defense, and failed to generate almost any opportunities at the plate after the first three innings. Toronto gave away Game 3 about as much as New York took it.
The Jays could be one game from flipping everything back their way, but right now they look a lot more like they’re in retreat. You might run away from Aaron Judge too.