TORONTO – The Yankees had hoped to put their Rogers Centre woes behind them.
The first two games of the ALDS only highlighted Toronto’s dominance this season, as the Yankees have now dropped 8 of their last 9 games in Canada after allowing 23 runs—setting a postseason record for runs allowed over two games—between Saturday and Sunday. The disappointing performance was compounded by strong outings from Toronto pitchers Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage while the Yankees’ bats faltered. This situation now has the Yankees preparing for another potential elimination game in the Bronx after they successfully overcame the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series last week.
“We performed well when we were in a tough spot against Boston,” Ben Rice noted after the Yankees fell 13-7 in Game 2 of the ALDS. “Now we need to prove we can do it once more.”
Aaron Judge expressed a similar view, describing the Yankees’ situation as “nothing new for us.” He referred to the Wild Card Series and the team pushing the AL East race to the season’s final day, despite benefiting from facing last-place teams towards the end. Nonetheless, the Jays clinched the division since they held the tiebreaker over the Yankees with an 8-5 regular-season record against them.
Judge harked back to his rookie year in 2017 for morale boosting, recalling how those Yankees dropped two ALDS matches in Cleveland before securing three consecutive victories—two at home and one away—to advance to the ALCS.
“We’ve been in this position before,” indicated Judge, who is batting .444 this postseason but is yet to hit a home run. “We have experience. We have guys who have been to the World Series, faced tough challenges, and handled pressure throughout the season. So we just need to show up and play our game.”
As the Yankees aim to return to the World Series and redeem themselves from a messy performance that led to taunts from the Dodgers’ roster in the offseason, the odds are currently stacked against them.
Teams that have taken a 2-0 lead at home in the ALDS have won it 31 out of 34 times. That includes 20 sweeps.
“We’re ready to go,” Max Fried said after allowing seven earned runs over three innings in Game 2. “Obviously, we had a rough showing here, and obviously we’d rather be up 2-0 than down 2-0, but we have a lot of faith in this club.
“We’re a good team. Two games doesn’t mean anything. We still have the ability to go out there and win three in a row and win the series.”
While the Yankees’ season is now on the brink again, the team is not changing the even-keel, one-day-at-a-time mindset that has become embedded in the clubhouse under Judge and Aaron Boone.
Will Warren, who gave up six earned runs on Sunday, said there’s no need to be “rallying the troops,” as the Yanks “know what’s at stake.”
“Obviously, don’t like it. But to get out of it? One at a time,” Giancarlo Stanton, who is hitting an uncharacteristic .150 this postseason after picking up a two-run single on Sunday, added of the situation. “You can’t look to the whole series. You gotta go one at a time, execute each inning, execute each pitch, and not look far ahead.”
Boone, meanwhile, noted that “baseball is a funny game,” full of unpredictability.
“Obviously, it feels like the world’s caving in around you, you lose two games like that in their building where it doesn’t go right,” the manager continued. “But all of a sudden you go out there and win a ballgame on Tuesday; the needle can change.
“There’s been a lot of weird things that have happened in baseball this year. This would not be the weirdest, us rallying. We’ll come ready to go Tuesday, expect to win, and then look to win again and push it back here.”
By “here,” Boone meant Toronto, which would host a decisive Game 5 if the Yankees can win two back home.
The pinstripers haven’t been able to pinpoint why the Rogers Centre has been such a nightmare for them – at least not publicly – but they’ve expressed conviction in their ability to beat the Jays in their raucous ballpark.
Actually achieving that has been a rarity this season, though. Not just for the Yankees, but across the sport, as Toronto went 54-27 in Canada this season.
No American League team had a better record at home.
“They have good fans. They’re loud. But we all enjoy being in hostile environments,” Rice said. “They have definitely played very well at home, so hat’s off to them.”
