Sloppy Jays blow 6-1 lead, Judge swats Yanks back into ALDS

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In a town where Reggie Jackson became known as Mr. October, Blue Jays star Vlad Guerrero Jr. has loved playing the villain and behaving as the rude guest who believes it is his home.

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He thrives on the stage of Yankee Stadium, and time after time performs accordingly.

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It was certainly that way early on a wild Tuesday night in the Bronx, as Guerrero was poised to make his biggest statement yet. He strutted out as the lead man, staking to his team to an early 6-1 lead over the Yankees to set up what felt like a celebratory dance to a series sweep in the best-of-five ALDS

And then, his Bronx Bombers superstar counterpart, Aaron Judge, reminded the baseball world who presides over the famed stadium.

A massive three-run Judge homer in the fourth inning tied it for the Yankees, who took advantage of some gruesome, sloppy Blue Jays defence, and rode it to a 9-6 win.

Instead of a champagne celebration and cakewalk journey to their first appearance in the ALCS since 2016, suddenly the Blue Jays feel like they are in a hell of a fight.

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After watching the Bronx Bombers score eight unanswered runs to romp to the season-saving victory, the Jays must right themselves in a hurry. Sure, it may sound like an overreaction after one bitterly disappointing loss, but we’re about to find out what manager John Schneider’s team is made of.

The winning blast on Tuesday, as it turned out, was a solo homer from the Yankees Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the fifth to stake his team to a 7-6 lead that would not be surrendered.

With the Yankees back in the series and their young and emerging rookie ace, Cam Schlittler, slated to get the start on Wednesday, the division rivals will contest a Game 4 back on the very field that Tuesday’s dumbfounding dramatics unfolded.

The Jays will counter with what will be a bullpen day, a challenge in itself given that their Game 3 starter, Shane Bieber, lasted just 2.2 innings forcing manager John Schneider to use six relievers.

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Should the Yankees prevail again, it would force a one-game showdown back at the Rogers Centre on Friday.

It was certainly a night of wild swings and opportunities missed for the Jays on Tuesday, a game in which they must have sensed the opportunity in front of them before booting it away.

Our takeaways:

STAR ON STAR

The marquee attraction of this series was all about the heavyweight tussle between Guerrero and Judge.

And neither larger-than-life star player backed down in Game 3.

There was Guerrero hitting a two-run homer in the first and later a soar-through-the-air dive at home to score another run in the third, continuing to emphatically mark his territory in the series. With three home runs in three games, the Jays’ young star first baseman has done his part.

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But not to be outdone, Judge was the showstopper with his fourth-inning homer in which he took a 99.7 mile per hour fastball from Jays reliever Louis Varland that was more than a foot inside.

It was a stunning and sublime display of hitting from one of the greats, a ball that was hooking and hooking before doinking high up the yellow foul pole in left field. Judge has now hit six home runs when his team is facing playoff elimination, tying Red Sox great David Ortiz for the most in MLB history.

Suddenly a game that was 6-1 early and 6-3 when Judge entered the batter’s box was all square. With the season on the line, the big man came up with a swing for the ages that brought the house down.

The Jays never recovered.

Judge reached base four times for a second consecutive game while Guerrero has had multiple hits in all three games in the series thus far.

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ERRORS OF THEIR WAYS

A Jays team that had played clean ball defensively for so much of the 2025 season made a mess of things in the field on Tuesday, in many ways handing the Yankees the victory and a lifeline back into the series.

There was Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s botching of a ground ball in the first inning that would have allowed starter Shane Bieber to exit with a seven-pitch inning. Instead, the Yankees got a run and stayed alive.

Another blunder occurred in the fourth in shallow left as third baseman Addison Barger called off Davis Schneider who was charging in from his outfield spot to make the play only to drop the ball. Two batters later, Judge hit his potentially series-changing shot to tie the game.

That miscue was the most egregious as Barger attempted to run down the easy pop from Austin Wells but had the ball bound off his glove. What should have been two outs with nobody on soon led to the Judge dramatics and a series-altering swat.

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Those efforts, plus a ground ball that got under the glove of Guerrero to lead to another late Yankees run, were uncharacteristic of a Jays team that thrived on doing the little things adeptly throughout their 94-win regular season.

STUTTER STARTS

In what was supposed to be a compelling showdown between starting pitchers, both the Jays Shane Bieber and the Yankees Carlos Rodon came up short for their teams.

Both didn’t make it out of the third inning. And both placed huge stress on their respective bullpens.

Bieber was taken out after 2.2 innings allowing five hits and just two earned runs, but Yankees hitters were getting to him hard.

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Rodon, meanwhile, was chased after just 2.1 innings of work and six runs on six hits. I

NOW WHAT?

One of the intrinsic beauties of playoff baseball is how rapidly fortunes can change, especially in a shortened series.

The Jays and their fans surely won’t awaken feeling that way on Wednesday, but a series that seemed over in the third inning on Tuesday is now packed with drama. The Jays are still in the driver’s seat, but just as quickly as they got a scent of advancing, the possibility of a season-ending Friday night looms.

Crazy, indeed.

This is the fourth time, by the way, that the Yankees have trailed 0-2 in an ALDS and in two of the previous three they have stormed back for a win. They’re also clutch at home when facing elimination — now 11-3 in their previous 14 games facing the prospect. Tuesday’s heroics allowed them to be just the fifth team in MLB history to overcome a five-run deficit in a game in which they were facing elimination.

On Wednesday, Schneider will need to channel his creativity to find a way for his team to take care of business. Game 4, if it arrived, was always going to be a bullpen day as the Jays entered the ALDS with just three starters.

The series isn’t over for the Jays — far from it — but on a dispiriting night in the Bronx, it had to feel like it. And there are enough remaining Jays on the roster – including manager Schneider – who remember well the 8-1 lead the Jays blew in a wildcard game the Seattle Mariners.

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