All You Need Is Judge: Slugger Powers Yankees To Win Over Blue Jays in ALDS Game 3

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge didn’t deserve the rumblings. After he struck out with the bases loaded on Saturday in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Blue Jays, Yankee fans started to grumble that maybe he just didn’t have it in the postseason. It’s true that he’d struggled in 2020 and 2022, but Judge had excelled in the playoffs earlier in his career, and he came into Game 3 of the ALDS on Tuesday night with a career postseason wRC+ of 116. He hit three home runs during the Yankees’ World Series run just last year, including a game-tying shot in Game 3 of the ALCS.

On Tuesday night, with a performance that would be eye-opening if it had come from just about any other player in baseball, Judge pushed his batting average in the 2025 postseason to an even .500. He went 3-for-4 with an intentional walk and a couple of great plays in right field, and for the rumblers and grumblers with short memories, he launched a mammoth, game-tying, season-saving, signature home run, pulling the Yankees back from the abyss and into Game 4 with a 9-6 victory over the Blue Jays.

Although Judge excelled from start to finish in Game 3, the momentum finally swung in New York’s direction when he walked to the plate in the bottom of the fourth. After jumping out to yet another early lead and threatening for the third game in a row to pile on enough runs to make things insurmountable, the Blue Jays found themselves in the worst kind of trouble. In baseball terms, that means any trouble involving Judge.

The Blue Jays pushed their lead to 6-1 in the top of the third, but the Yankees had cut the deficit to three and driven starter Shane Bieber from the game in the bottom half of the inning. With two on and one out, Judge stepped in the box representing the tying run. The fans rose to their feet as Judge laid his bat across the plate to measure his preferred distance from home plate, then dug his cleats into the dirt to mark the spot. Louis Varland got ahead of him with a curveball for a foul ball, then blew a 100-mph four-seamer right by him. Down 0-2, Judge called timeout to consider his options. “He’s got all the leverage,” Judge said after the game, explaining that behind in the count, he couldn’t afford to be passive; he needed to attack.

Varland came back with another fastball, this one well off the plate inside. It was not a pitch to hit, at least not for most batters. But Judge isn’t most batters, and because of his long arms, the line he gouges into the batter’s box tells him to set up more than 33 inches off the plate, third farthest of any hitter this season. He tucked in his hands and turned on the pitch viciously. Then he just stood there, watching and waiting like everyone else in the stadium to see which side of the foul pole the ball would decide to land on. It never made up its mind, clanging off the pole some 50 or 60 feet in the air. The game was tied, 6-6. That deficit never made it all the way to insurmountable, and the Blue Jays weren’t invincible after all. It was the first moment in the entire series when the Blue Jays didn’t hold a lead after the second inning.

The stadium exploded. Fans tossed their beers into the air. Writers in the auxiliary press box in the second-to-last row of Section 407 frantically closed their laptops to keep the falling suds from shorting out their keyboards. Then they hastily deleted the ledes they’d written about the Blue Jays running away with their third straight game. Judge was the story of the night. He was a triple shy of the cycle, and the fun facts started rolling in. Stathead’s Katie Sharp wrote that Judge had tied David Ortiz at six for the most home runs in potential elimination games in postseason history. MLB.com’s Sarah Langs noted that it was the first time since August of last year that Judge had homered on a pitch outside the zone. The YES Network’s James Smyth pointed out that the pitch was 99.7 mph and 1.2 feet inside, making it both the fastest and most-inside pitch Judge had ever hit for a homer. (And, as Langs and MLB.com’s Andrew Simon jumped back in to point out, it was the fastest pitch anyone had hit out that far inside since the beginning of the pitch tracking era in 2008.)

After the game, the players and coaches gushed about the swing every bit as effusively as the nerds. “You’re talking about a really good player turning around 100 like three balls in,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. Yankees skipper Aaron Boone pointed out how hard it is to keep that pitch fair. “Just a really good swing to keep himself tight to that ball, just to stay inside it and not hook it,” he said. “Just a great swing on a pretty nasty pitch.” Ryan McMahon marveled at the same thing, telling reporters, “To get to it and still backspin it true enough, it’s incredible.” Jazz Chisholm Jr. had jokes. “I thought it was going to go over the foul pole, and they were going to make the wrong call,” he said, before getting serious. “He’s 6’8” and he’s still hitting that ball the way he hits it. He’s just unbelievable. We all went over the video about 10 times after he did it. It’s crazy.” Judge had a different take on putting that kind of swing on a pitch so far outside the zone. “I get yelled at for swinging at them outside the zone; now I’m getting praise for it,” he joked. “I’m just out there trying to swing at a good pitch. It looked good to me.”

Down 2-0 and facing elimination, the Yankees didn’t mess around with subtext. “Ain’t found a way to kill me yet,” moaned Alice in Chains’ Layne Stanley as starter Carlos Rodón tossed his warmup pitches. The chorus of the song played once, right before the umpire shouted play ball:

Here they come to snuff the Rooster
Yeah, here come the Rooster
You know he ain’t gonna die.

Rodón came into the game on something of a hot streak, although his strikeout rate was much lower than his regular season mark. Over his final 10 starts of the regular season, he went 7-2 with a 2.52 ERA and 3.52 FIP, only once allowing more than two earned runs and only twice going fewer than six innings. He then earned a no-decision in New York’s win against the Red Sox in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, striking out six and allowing three earned runs over six innings. On Tuesday night, however, the Blue Jays jumped all over him. Rodón walked Davis Schneider, then fell behind the red-hot Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and paid for it. After Rodón missed with two four-seamers, Guerrero leaned back on a thigh-high 2-0 changeup out over the plate. It was a 427-foot no-doubter, coming in at 83.6 mph, leaving at 111, and landing in the Toronto bullpen in left-center field. For the third time in three games, the Blue Jays possessed a 2-0 lead within the first two innings.

Meanwhile, in the home half, the Yankees were able to push a run across in the first inning for the first time in the series. After undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2024, Bieber only returned to action in August and made just seven starts, consisting of just 40 1/3 innings. Since his return, his stuff has looked sharp, but inconsistent. It caught up with him on Tuesday. Judge sent a laser beam through the left side of the infield for a single, advanced to second when Isiah Kiner-Falefa misplayed a routine grounder to second that should have ended the inning, and scored when Giancarlo Stanton ripped one of his classic 116-mph singles into left.

Rodón authored New York’s first scoreless second inning of the series, then imploded in the third. Davis Schneider led off with a double down the third base line on a changeup. With first base empty, the Yankees decided that they had pitched to Guerrero quite enough this series, thank you very much. After the intentional walk, Alejandro Kirk flied out to right field and Daulton Varsho dumped a weak-but-catchable line drive into left field. It looked like Rodón had worked his way out of it, but for the second time in the series, the ball clanked off the glove of a sliding Cody Bellinger. Center fielder Trent Grisham fired it in to second base, but no one seemed to communicate to Chisholm that Schneider was heading for home. By the time he whipped around and fired to the plate, there was no play to be made. Toronto led 3-1.

Ernie Clement sent a single into left field, and Guerrero scored from second with a majestic dive, getting plenty of air and barely beating a good throw from Bellinger. The Blue Jays had a 4-1 lead with runners on second and third with one out and Anthony Santander coming to the plate. A mound visit only served to pause the onslaught. Santander singled into right field, pushing the lead to 6-1 and ending Rodón’s night after just 2 1/3 innings. His six earned runs matched his worst start of the entire season.

The Yankees fought back in the third. Grisham led off with a double into the right field corner, and Judge knocked him in with a mirror image double into the left field corner — 6-2 game, and it wouldn’t stay there long. Bellinger lined a single into center field, giving the Yankees runners on first and third with no outs. An hour and 14 minutes into the game, the crowd launched into the first “Let’s go Yankees!” rallying cry of the evening. Ben Rice hit a grounder to Guerrero at first base, and Guerrero alertly caught Judge trespassing a bit too far off third base. He charged the runner, who prolonged the 3-2-5-3 rundown long enough for Bellinger to advance to third. The savvy baserunning recovery proved fruitful, as Bellinger tagged up and scored when Stanton launched another scorcher, this time a 405-foot line drive to center that pushed Varsho all the way to the wall. The Toronto lead was 6-3. Bieber walked Chisholm, and that was the end of his night.

Although the Blue Jays still led by three, the atmosphere in the stadium had changed. Bieber had thrown 54 pitches and wouldn’t be returning for the fourth. The Blue Jays would need six innings from their bullpen, and the New York bats were finally waking up. Then Judge happened.

Managers never hurry out of the dugout. There’s no reason to hurry. It’s cruel enough to look your pitcher in the eye, demand the ball, and force him to take the long, lonely walk back to the bench. Appearing eager to do so is a bridge too far. In the bottom of the fourth, though, John Schneider had just a bit of giddyup as he came out to take the ball from reliever Mason Fluharty. He was about as close to hurrying as you’ll ever see, and for a very compelling reason. “MVP! MVP! MVP!” chanted the crowd as Judge started toward the plate. For the third time in the series, Varland came in to pitch. It was his first time facing Judge, who got a refresher scouting report from Stanton while Varland warmed up. The tightrope home run tied the game in the fourth, and then Judge made a diving catch in the top of the fifth. In the bottom of the frame, the Yankees took their first lead of the series.

Varland returned, striking out Stanton to lead off the inning. Chisholm dropped the bat head on a 99-mph fastball toward the bottom of the zone but right over the middle. In one motion, he stopped his backswing and flipped the bat up and end-over-end. It landed well before the ball came down in the right field bleachers. Schneider brought in right-hander Braydon Fisher, who promptly surrendered a double down the left field line to Amed Rosario. Anthony Volpe worked a full count before striking out for the third time in a row. Another “Let’s go Yankees” chant broke out, and the Yankees finally went. Austin Wells shot a groundball through the right side, scoring Rosario to extend the lead to 8-6. No one minded too much when the catcher got thrown out trying to advance to second on the throw home.

The Yankees tacked on an insurance run after the Blue Jays issued Judge the rare – but certainly understandable – bases-empty intentional walk. Bellinger hit a sinking line drive into right field off Brendon Little, and Santander dove and completely whiffed on the ball. Varsho was on the spot backing up, which kept Judge from scoring, but the Yankees had runners on second and third with one out and Rice at the plate. Rice lifted a sac fly to right, pushing the lead to 9-6. That was the end of the scoring. The Yankees bullpen blanked the Blue Jays from the fourth inning on, with Devin Williams getting four outs in his first multi-inning appearance since 2023.

The Blue Jays still have the series lead, home field advantage, and Guerrero sporting a .615 batting average with three home runs over the first three games, but the Yankees bats have finally awoken. They’ve got Cam Schlittler, pitching Wednesday’s Game 4 fresh off one of the most dominant postseason performances we’ve ever seen. The Blue Jays are coming off a gutting loss after going up five runs, and they’re throwing a bullpen game on Wednesday despite the fact that their bullpen has an ERA of 8.76 in the series and was asked to go 5 1/3 innings on Tuesday.

This is already shaping up to be one of the more bizarre series in recent memory. The two teams have combined to score 46 runs in just three games! Neither team has come up with a way to retire the other’s biggest slugger. Schneider announced late Tuesday night that after surrendering that mammoth home run to Judge, Varland would be Toronto’s opener on Wednesday. Both teams have gassed bullpens. If Schlittler looks anything like he was against the Red Sox last week, or if the Blue Jays bullpen looks anything like it has all week, all signs point to a Game 5 in Toronto, where anything at all could happen.