Yankees hope to ignore past, make history of their own starting with Game 3 in Bronx
Yankees first baseman Ben Rice takes fielding practice before ALDS Game 3 against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Yankees getting to play Tuesday night’s do-or-die Game 3 in the Bronx was one of the few positives Aaron Boone & Co. clung to as they faced elimination for the third time already this October.
Only because this Division Series couldn’t have gone any worse over the weekend at Rogers Centre, where the Blue Jays performed at the height of their powers.
The Yankees were steamrolled up there in the first two games by an aggregate score of 23-8, and Toronto’s run total was the highest ever for the first two games of a playoff series. The Jays also out-homered the Bombers, 8-1, a surprising power shift for a Yankees team that led the majors with 274 during the regular season.
One thing became immediately clear: The Blue Jays, even minus slugging shortstop Bo Bichette, presented a far greater challenge than a Red Sox lineup composed mostly of platoon utility players. Even so, Alex Cora’s scrappy roster came within or bounce or two of ending the Yankees’ season in the Wild Card round.
History wasn’t on the Yankees’ side, either. Entering Tuesday, teams that had taken a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series had won 80 of those 90 lopsided scenarios, with 54 of those ending in sweeps.
As Aaron Judge made sure to mention in the Game 2 aftermath, his 2017 Yankees were one of those teams — surging back to beat Cleveland. Judge’s Hall of Fame predecessor in the captain’s role, Derek Jeter, helped the 2001 Yankees pull off the feat against the A’s, complete with his signature glove-flip moment to save Game 3.
Judge is the only remaining member of that ’17 team, and manager Joe Girardi was fired after those Yankees lost to the cheating Astros in Game 7 of the ALCS. Boone, whose own future could come under additional scrutiny after a potential sweep, continued to preach his relentless positivity heading into Game 3.
“We’ve handled adverse situations all year, and navigated that,” Boone said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s a group that’s very close-knit. They trust in one another and that’s important this time of year. But it all comes down to going out and playing well. I feel like our guys are in the right frame of mind to do that.”
The Yankees did catch the Blue Jays at the end of the regular season with an eight-game winning streak, but conceded the AL East based on what has turned out to be a very costly head-to-head tiebreaker. That forced Boone to go with Luis Gil as his Game 1 starter — he lasted only 2 2/3 innings — as well as open at Rogers Centre, which became a house of horrors for Max Fried (three-plus innings, five runs) in the Game 2 beatdown as well.
That stuck the Yankees with the unenviable task of having to sweep the Blue Jays over the next three games, something they were unable to do in going 5-8 against them during the regular season. Overall, the Yankees swept a three-game series 10 times in 2025, including a pair of eventual playoff teams, both at home. One was the Brewers on opening weekend (remember those magical torpedo bats?) and the other was the Mariners (July 8-10).
Any hope of playing beyond Tuesday night relied on the left arm of Carlos Rodon, who held down the Red Sox just long enough in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series for the Yankees to snatch a 4-3 victory. Could Rodon succeed where Gil and Fried failed miserably? He’d have to figure out a way to contain Vlad Guerrero Jr., who was 6-for-9 (2 HRs, grand slam, 6 RBIs) in this Division Series and a personal nemesis for Rodon. Guerrero was a career .588 hitter (10-for-17) against Rodon with three doubles and a home run.
But it’s not just Guerrero. Rodon is a pitcher who leaned on Ks this season — his 203 ranked 10th in the majors — and the Blue Jays are a team that doesn’t strike out very often (only the Royals had fewer than their 1,099 Ks during the regular season). Through the first two games, Toronto had whiffed only seven times in 74 at-bats, batting .392 as a team.
“They force action,” Rodon said. “They put the ball in play. There’s times where you need a strikeout and the miss just isn’t there.”
In other words, the polar opposite of the Yankees, who entered Tuesday with 50 strikeouts in their first five playoff games. Ben Rice was among the worst offenders, as his seven Ks were behind only Anthony Volpe (10) and Trent Grisham (8), but Boone still chose to start him over Paul Goldschmidt despite Shane Bieber’s reverse splits. Bieber limited lefthanded hitters to a .156 batting average and .434 OPS, which was a significant dip from righties (.297 BA, .936 OPS).
“I’m putting out there what I think has the best chance to be successful against Bieber,” Boone said of the Rice decision. “He’s just been a more dangerous hitter, especially here down the stretch, and kind of killed the ball all year against righthanded pitching.”
It was Rice’s two-run homer in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series that first breathed life into the Yankees as they tried (and successfully) fought off elimination against the Red Sox. That’s the only history they were interested in Tuesday night. The recent kind that worked in their favor.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
