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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — Cody Bellinger stood in the on-deck circle during the fourth inning Tuesday night — the ideal vantage point to follow the 100 mph fastball that Aaron Judge somehow launched from over a foot inside off the plate and into the sky down the left-field line in what was perhaps the most important swing of the New York Yankees‘ 2025 season.
Bellinger had just one wish: “I was just saying, ‘Hit the f—ing foul pole.'”
When it did, striking the pole three-quarters of the way to the top for a game-tying three-run homer, a path to survival cleared for the Yankees, who were facing elimination by the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.
Finally, after being dominated the first two games and falling behind by five runs Tuesday, there was life for the Yankees. Soon after, for the first time all series, the Yankees took the lead on Jazz Chisholm Jr.‘s laser to right field in the fifth inning. In the end, fueled by their first offensive explosion of the postseason and a crucial bullpen performance, the Yankees won 9-6 to force a Game 4 on Wednesday.
“You just never know with the wind if it’s going to push it foul and keep curving or not,” Judge said. “But I guess a couple ghosts out there in Monument Park helped kind of keep that fair.”
The Blue Jays had been 39-0 this season when leading by at least five runs. The Yankees had not won a playoff game after trailing by at least five runs since the 2010 AL Championship Series, and they became the fifth team in history to overcome a five-run deficit when facing elimination.
“It was just keep putting together at-bats,” Bellinger said. “Grinding away, chipping away. The confidence in this room is very high. We all believe in each other. Not an ideal start for us, obviously, but we got to pick each other up, and we did a good job of that today.”
The series shifted to the Bronx after two games in Toronto, but the script appeared nearly identical early. Outscored 23-8 at Rogers Centre, the Yankees fell behind 6-1 through 2½ innings Tuesday. Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. continued his superstar turn with his third home run of the series, a two-run blast in the first inning. All-Star Carlos Rodón lasted just 2⅓ innings, forcing New York’s bullpen to cover at least 20 outs.
The Yankees were reeling again.
But this time, they rebounded, tallying two runs in the third inning, three in the fourth on Judge’s power display, two more in the fifth and a final one in the sixth with help from two Toronto errors and Anthony Santander‘s errant diving attempt on a double by Bellinger.
Meanwhile, five Yankees relievers combined to toss 6⅔ scoreless innings. Devin Williams logged 1⅓ frames — the first time he has pitched more than one inning this season — to extend his scoreless streak to 12⅓ innings since Sept. 7. David Bednar followed to finish the job with a five-out save.
“They were awesome,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of the relievers. “Again, I don’t think any of them, hopefully, are overly taxed too, with the game tomorrow.”
On the other side, the Blue Jays used six relievers to cover 5⅓ innings after Shane Bieber exited with two outs in the third inning. Louis Varlandthe second one summoned, was inserted by manager John Schneider to face Judge in the fourth inning. The hard-throwing right-hander got ahead 0-2 when he threw a pitch that he nor anybody else in the stadium thought Judge could hit over the wall and keep fair.
“It just shows he’s just unbelievable,” Chisholm said of Judge. “We all went over the video about 10 times in the dugout after he hit it. It was crazy.”
“You just never know with the wind if it’s going to push it foul and keep curving or not. But I guess a couple ghosts out there in Monument Park helped kind of keep that fair.”
Aaron Judge
The blast was the sixth of Judge’s career in potential elimination games, tying David Ortiz for the most in postseason history. The two-time AL MVP finished Tuesday’s contest 3-for-4 with a double and an intentional walk, pushing his playoff batting average to .500 and OPS to 1.304. Judge added two diving catches in right field and heads-up baserunning that led to a run in the third inning.
Heavily scrutinized for his October struggles in previous years, Judge is carrying the Yankees.
“It was a best-player-in-the-game type performance,” Boone said. “It was special when, obviously, needless to say, we’re backs against the wall and then some in a Game 3 situation.”
The Yankees will be in that position again in Game 4, their fourth elimination game in less than a week. They’ll have, on paper, the pitching edge with Cam Schlittler getting the start and the Blue Jays deploying a bullpen game with Varland as the opener.
The path to survive another day and force a winner-take-all Game 5 in Toronto on Friday is there.
“For us, it’s about living to fight another day, right?” Bellinger said. “That’s all you can really do in this game.”
