Yankees off to ugly start in Division Series
New York Yankees pitcher Fernando Cruz (63) reacts after Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Nathan Lukes (38) hits a double and is talked to by New York Yankees pitching coach Pete Walker in the 7th inning as the New York Yankees take on the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Oct 4, 2025 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
TORONTO
Saturday’s Division Series opener at Rogers Centre followed the Yankees’ winning formula to perfection.
A solid, stingy performance from the starting pitcher. A trio of homers with a few more resourceful runs piled on. The bullpen using a carousel of relievers to ultimately close the door.
This time, however, it wasn’t the Yankees who did all of those things.
That team was the Blue Jays, who soundly throttled Aaron Boone & Co. by beating them at their own game, and alarmingly so, in a 10-1 rout that dredged up terrifying flashbacks from Toronto’s first-half dominance over its AL East rival.
Luis Gil wasn’t the primary reason the Yankees went belly-up in Game 1, just as they did in dropping the Wild Card Series opener to the Red Sox, but his 2 2⁄3-inning cameo was a shocking contrast with the rotation’s depth in the first round.
By serving up a pair of homers to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk within the first five batters, Gil surrendered one fewer run than Max Fried, Carlos Rodon and Cam Schlittler did in their combined 20 1⁄3 innings.
Gil was lucky to last that long. Manager Aaron Boone had Tim Hill and Paul Blackburn warming up midway through the second inning with Gil already at 30 pitches. Once Guerrero smoked a two-out single in the third, Boone jumped from the dugout to signal for Hill.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Gil said through an interpreter. “At the same time, he’s the manager, he makes those calls. This is a playoff game, a little different from the regular season.”
Still, the outcome was disturbingly familiar to the Yankees’ previous ineptitude against the Blue Jays, back when they started 3-6, the trigger to the negative momentum that ultimately cost them the head-to-head tiebreaker and the AL East title when both teams finished 94-68.
That’s the only reason Gil was even on the mound Saturday and the rested Blue Jays got to counter with their gassed-up ace, Kevin Gausman, who barely broke a sweat through the first five innings and muscled up to get two big outs in the sixth before departing.
Which brings us to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton being non-factors, unlike their burly counterparts on the Toronto side.
When the Jays needed to put the Rogers Centre crowd of 44,655 on its feet, Guerrero and Kirk provided the fireworks. Judge and Stanton came up empty, especially during the Yankees’ last, best chance in the sixth inning.
Seeing Judge striding to the plate with the bases loaded and none out was a nightmare scenario for the Jays. Gausman even fell behind 2-and-1. But what ensued, in total, was an eight-pitch war of wills between the two. Judge fouled off a 97-mph fastball on his hands to stay alive on the seventh pitch. But when Gausman followed with a an 86-mph splitter outside and in the dirt, Judge couldn’t hold back, waving helplessly at what would have been ball four.
“Took some tough pitches, but in the end, I didn’t get the job done,” said Judge, who still is personally searching for that signature October moment. “That’s what it comes down to — just not doing your job.”
The Yankees weren’t finished yet. The wobbly Gausman forced in the Yankees’ lone run with a four-pitch walk to Cody Bellinger, and after Ben Rice popped up to third, in came Jays reliever Louis Varland to face Stanton. All the Yankees needed was that one big swing to bust the game open, but all Stanton could connect with was air, whiffing on a 100.7-mph heater, the fastest pitch of Varland’s career.
At the time, that didn’t feel like the Yankees’ final opportunity. Stunningly, their bullpen made sure of it, sabotaging any hope of a comeback.
Luke Weaver’s high-leverage days should be done after he opened the seventh with a walk and two singles, then bowed out to Fernando Cruz. Weaver is a shell of the dominant closer who owned October a year ago. He’s faced six batters in these playoffs, and the result has been four hits, two walks and zero outs.
Afterward, Weaver claimed that pitch-tipping is at the root of his struggles, but now it seems to have eroded his confidence as well. And if that’s the case, he might be beyond fixing for the remainder of this season, for however long it lasts.
“I don’t want to get too crazy into it, but there’s adjustments I’ve had to make based off things people are seeing and it just hasn’t really lined up,” Weaver said.
Cruz then kept the landslide moving. The only outs he was able to get involved a botched bunt and a sacrifice fly as the Jays scored four runs during that sixth inning. Boone then went to his white flag, summoning Blackburn to mop up from there.
And the Jays? Their four relievers combined for 3 1⁄3 scoreless innings, allowing only two hits, and the offense feasted on the Yankees’ bullpen in the seventh and eighth.
These were all troublesome trends for Boone & Co. but could be reversed in short order with Fried opposing rookie Trey Yesavage in Sunday’s Game 2.
The Yankees are facing another 0-1 deficit, though. And the October Jays looked a lot like the July Jays on Saturday.
“We’re gonna keep the same mindset we had all year,” Judge said. “This game’s over with. Got out of hand. We got a big game tomorrow and just take care of business.”
Or at least find a way to play more like the Yankees again. That would be a good place to start.
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.
