Up 5 runs, Blue Jays let AL Division Series sweep slip out of their gloves

NEW YORK (AP) — Up five runs, the Toronto Blue Jays were headed to a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees and their first trip to the AL Championship Series in nine years.

And then it slipped out of their gloves.

A pair of critical errors by Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Addison Barger revived the Yankees, who then rode home runs by Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. off Louis Varland to a 9-6 victory Tuesday night.

Instead of preparing to host Seattle or Detroit at Rogers Centre this weekend, the Blue Jays’ lead in the best-of-five series was cut to 2-1 and they turned to refocus on a Game 4 against New York on Wednesday night.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. did his best to seal the deal for the Blue Jays, hitting a two-run, first-inning homer off Carlos Rodón and going 2-for-4 to leave him hitting .693 (8-for-13) with three homers and eight RBIs in the series. But the Blue Jays lost after leading by five runs for the first time since Sept. 3, 2024, against Philadelphia, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Kiner-Falefa, a former Gold Glove winner, allowed Ben Rice’s two-out grounder in the bottom half to kick off the heel of his glove. The ball bounced off Kiner-Falefa’s chest and fell to the dirt, and Kiner-Falefa inadvertently kicked it as Rice reached. Giancarlo Stanton followed with an RBI single that cut the lead in half.

With the Blue Jays ahead 6-3 in the fourth, one out and no one on, Austin Wells lofted a pop to left. Third baseman Addison Barger, who had entered as a pinch-hitter in the third, settled under the ball in short left only for the wind to blow the ball toward the seats. The ball hit off his glove and bounced into foul territory as Wells reached second.

Trent Grisham walked, Varland relieved and got ahead of Judge 0-2. Varland then threw an inside, up 99.7 miles per hour fastball that the two-time AL MVP drove high down the left-field line. Varland craned his neck and watched the ball clang high off the foul pole. Judge made a rare bat flip as his three-run homer tied the score 6-6.

Judge’s home run was the first on a 99 miles per hour or faster pitch 1.2 feet inside from the centre of the strike zone since pitch tracking started in 2008, according to MLB Statcast.

Then in the fifth, Varland left a 99.4 m.p.h fastball low and inside for Chisholm, rarely a good pitch to a left-handed hitter in Yankee Stadium. Varland crouched and bowed his head even before Chisholm’s no-doubt drive bounced out of the second deck in right for a 7-6 lead.

Anthony Santander, in an image fitting of Toronto’s night, was prone in right, face in the grass, after he failed to come up with a backhand catch on Cody Bellinger’s liner in the sixth, which bounced to the warning track for a double.

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