The lasting image of October for another Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone-led Yankee team was Aaron Judge left on base as Cody Bellinger became the Blue Jays’ 10th strikeout victim in Game 4. Judge is one of the all-time great Yankees and the finest hitter of his era. Yet, once more, October was set to end predictably for him, with him falling short of the Canyon of Heroes and watching another team celebrate on the Yankee Stadium field that he holds in such high regard.

This marks the true autumn tradition at the Stadium, where winning the Series used to be the norm. Not since 2009, though. This now stands as the second longest championship drought in the team’s storied history, a history that started with Babe Ruth, the Judge of his time in baseball. But now, Yankee fans are expected to feel truly fortunate for enjoying three decades of winning seasons. Perhaps banners should start gracing Monument Park for those achievements.

“I want to go back out there right now,” expressed a solemn Judge on Wednesday night after his team only managed six hits against eight Blue Jays relievers, an “opener” tactic that closed out another unsuccessful October for the Yankees.

Following the Yankees’ inability to reach the Canyon of Heroes, we often hear how random postseason baseball can be. How it’s much like a crapshoot. Even the honorable Boone wasn’t using that as an excuse Wednesday night.

“That’s the beauty of it,” he said.

But even he can’t be shocked by this outcome, as these endings, these celebrations by the opposition, have become as predictable as the tide for the Yankees. The only uncertainty is in which playoff round they’ll occur. It was Bill Parcells who famously said that in sports, you are what your record says you are. Here is the October track record for the Brian/Boone Yankees:

They have participated in 12 postseason series over the eight seasons since Cashman dismissed Joe Girardi after the Yankees lost Games 6 and 7 to the Astros in the 2017 American League Championship Series. Their series record stands at 6-6. Their game win-loss record is 25-27. They have competed in two one-game Wild Card series, with one win and one loss.

They have absolutely put together an historic streak of winning seasons, and no one suggested that’s nothing. But not once in the Brian/Boone era have they been the best team in series that finished them. In three of the past four seasons — they missed the playoffs in 2023 when they nearly did throw in a losing season — they have played 13 games in series that ended their season: Once against the Astros in the ALCS, once against the Dodgers in the World Series, now in a division series against the Jays. Their record in those series is 2-11. “Crapshoot” is, by definition, is a risky and uncertain matter. The October numbers for these Yankees say otherwise, and you know how much they love their numbers.

Have they gotten back up in October after getting knocked down in the Brian/Boone era? They have. They at least fought their way out of a sweep against the Dodgers last year. They came back from losing the first game of their Wild Card series against the Red Sox just last week. And the whole world saw them come back from 1-6 down in Game 3 on Tuesday night, Judge carrying them again with a home run off the foul pole that made you feel as if you were watching Robert Redford — as Roy Hobbs — hit one off the light tower in “The Natural.”

But once again the Yankees were about to lose another playoff series as a lower seed, even if they were a lower seed just barely to the Jays, both of them ending with 94 regular-season wins. Other than the postseason of 2020 — the October games played on neutral fields during the pandemic — they have never won series like that in the Brian/Boone era. And in those three season-ending series over the past four years, the Yankees have never won a single road game. Their record in those is 0-6.

And so they have now watched the Blue Jays celebrate on their field the way the Dodgers did a year ago, and the Astros did in 2022, and the Red Sox back in 2018. If the kid, Cam Schlittler, didn’t pitch the game of his young life against the Red Sox last week, who knows, the Sox might have done it to the Yankees again.

When it was all on the line against the Jays, they were once again a baseball team called Judge, as All Rise rose once again. He hit .600 against the Blue Jays, had nine hits, six RBI, scored five runs, produced that unforgettable Game 3 home run to tie things at 6-all. Everybody else hit around .200. Even in the bottom of the season Wednesday, Judge plated one last run as he refused to make the last out.

The only time Judge let them down in this division series was when he struck out with bases loaded, nobody out in Game 1, when that was still a game. After that the Yankees were lucky the roof at Rogers Centre was closed, because it would have come crashing down on them in the late innings that day. The bottom line here is that the Blue Jays were better against the Yankees same as they were in the regular season; the way other teams with winning records were (the Yankees were 31-36 against them this year). Did the Yankees fight? They did. But who they were against the Blue Jays this week is who they inevitably are at this time of year. Another Yankee team with a really good record wasn’t good enough. They remain the champions of that.