Blue Jays-Yankees ALDS Game 3: Bad Defence and a Blown Lead Cost Toronto a Sweep

Many of the best baseball teams have an identity; the Toronto Blue Jays are no exception. All season, they’ve been known as a group that does the little things right. They get contributions from everyone on their roster, taking an approach that magnifies all the little things: putting the ball in play, moving runners over, and playing solid defence.

On Tuesday night in New York, the Blue Jays lost their identity.

Coming into the game, spirits were high. The Blue Jays had gotten out to a roaring start, winning the first two games of the ALDS in decisive fashion. After a 10-1 win in Game 1 and a 13-7 win in Game 2, fueled by eight home runs, 23 total runs scored, and a historic start by rookie phenom Trey Yesavage, the Blue Jays looked like they might have been unstoppable.

In the early part of Game 3, it looked like that would continue. The Blue Jays were facing Yankee left-hander Carlos Rodón, a pitcher they’ve seen twice already this season, and got to him early. After a George Springer strikeout to begin the game, Davis Schneider worked a full count and then drew a walk, setting up Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who promptly did this:

For Guerrero, it made three straight postseason games with a home run. His second career homer off of Rodón, this one 427 feet, gave the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the frame, Shane Bieber took the mound for his Blue Jays postseason debut and retired two of the first three batters. With a runner on first and two out, Ben Rice hit a groundball toward Blue Jays second baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who moved to his left and had the ball hit off his chest and kick away. It went down as the Blue Jays' first error of the series, and Giancarlo Stanton made them pay with an RBI single to cut the Jays' lead to one.

But the Blue Jays didn’t seem to let it faze them. In the top of the third, Schneider led off the inning with a double down the line. Then Yankees manager Aaron Boone gave Guerrero an intentional free pass, the second time this season he’s given the Blue Jays star first base. After an Alejandro Kirk lineout to right field, Daulton Varsho, Ernie Clement, and Anthony Santander all had base hits, and Rodón was taken out of the game. Toronto's bats had the team up to a 6-1 lead.

The Blue Jays felt like they were in a good place; they hadn’t lost a single game all season when they had a 5+ run lead, and the win expectancy chart was at 92%.

But 92% isn't 100%. From that point on, things started to fall apart. Bieber gave up a lead-off double of his own (to Trent Grisham) to start the bottom of the third, Aaron Judge had one too, and after a Stanton sac fly, the Blue Jays' lead was cut in half to 6-3. One batter later, Bieber was removed from the game.

Bieber finished with a line of 2.2 IP, five hits allowed, three runs allowed (two earned), and 54 pitches thrown; his five whiffs were the fewest in his last 25 starts, and of the 12 balls in play Bieber allowed, nine of them were hit hard, which forced the Blue Jays to turn to their bullpen early.

First up was Mason Fluharty, who got the last out of the third and the first out of the fourth as well. Austin Wells, the Yankees' number nine hitter, hit a shallow pop-up to short left field. Addison Barger looked like he was camped under it until he broke into a full sprint, and the ball hit off the heel of his glove. Wells ended up on second base. Fluharty followed that up with a walk to Grisham, and suddenly, Aaron Judge was coming to the plate as the tying run.

John Schneider chose to turn to Louis Varland, who got a massive strikeout of Stanton in Game 1. Varland, armed with a 100-mph fastball, used his 90-mph knuckle curve that was fouled off to get ahead and then threw a 100-mph fastball down the pipe that Judge swung through to get ahead 0-2. But Judge had the last laugh. Varland threw a good pitch, 100 mph in off the hands, but it didn’t matter. Judge pulled his hands in and roped it down the line, and just like that, the game was tied at six.

There’s an old cliché that baseball is a game of inches, and it felt true at that moment more than ever. If the pitch was placed just a few inches away in either direction, or if the ball moved just three more inches to the left, then it's a completely different ball game. But that’s not what was in the cards. The Yankees took advantage of the Blue Jays' second error of the game, and this one felt especially costly.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a go-ahead home run an inning later to give the Yankees the lead for good, while the Blue Jays continued to struggle in the field. Guerrero saw a ball go under his glove that wasn’t ruled an error, but it was the kind of play he's made before. Santander, who is not known for his defence, took a bad route on a ball, and for a play that had a 90% catch probability, it was the 10% that won.

Game 3 was decided by more than just the defence. The Blue Jays' bullpen, which got hit around in Game 2, was vulnerable on Tuesday night as well. The combination of Fluharty, Varland, Braydon Fisher, Brendon Little, Yariel Rodríguez and Tommy Nance combined to go 6.1 IP, allowing five earned runs, whereas the Yankees bullpen, which had its struggles throughout the season, held the Blue Jays to three hits and no earned runs, striking out more Blue Jays batters (9) than over the previous two games combined (7).

When the dust settled, the final score was Yankees 9, Blue Jays 6, as New York improved to 3-0 in the postseason when facing elimination.

The Blue Jays are still in the driver's seat, even if it feels a little uncomfortable. A win in Game 4 today will erase a lot of the hard feelings the Blue Jays felt in this game. They will face Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler, who has been dominant lately, highlighted by eight shutout innings against the Red Sox in the Wild Card round. Yet, the Blue Jays have gotten to him before, and they will hope for a repeat of the four earned runs they scored against him over just 1.2 IP earlier in September. The Blue Jays will turn to their bullpen (Varland will technically get the start), which will be looking for redemption as the Jays try to clinch the series in Game 4.

The good news is that one bad game does not define your identity, just like one bad pitch doesn’t define you as a pitcher. But the Blue Jays are going to have to clean up their defensive woes and get back to what made them so successful during the regular season. That all starts tonight in the Bronx.