The New York Yankees were on the ropes in Game 3 of their ALDS clash against the Toronto Blue Jays — the worst place to be when down 2-0 in the series and staring in the face of elimination. By the time the Yankees took their turn to bat in the third inning, they were already down 6-1 — with Carlos Rodon not able to put in a good performance at all to try and keep New York in the series.
But the Yankees woke up from there on out. They scored six runs total in the third and fourth innings, with Aaron Judge driving in four of them — three in one huge swing — and New York proceeded to take the lead in the fifth inning thanks to a dinger from Jazz Chisholm Jr. They did not look back after taking a 7-6 lead, as they pushed the series against the Blue Jays to a Game 4 thanks to a 9-6 victory.
What made everything so nerve-wracking for the Yankees when the Blue Jays got off to such a good start against Rodon was that Toronto quite literally never loses when they go up that big. In fact, Jeff Passan of ESPN pointed out that the Blue Jays went 39-0 in games this year where they led by five or more runs. Now, they're 39-1, thanks to a heroic performance from Judge, who is now up to an OPS of 1.304 in this year's postseason.
Judge, after the Yankees' Game 2 loss, said that they've been in that kind of position before and they've managed to overturn a deficit of that magnitude. And it looks like their experience paid off in a huge way on Tuesday. Not too many would manage to remain composed in that position, but they did, and now, the Yankees live to see another day.
Yankees' league-leading offense comes to play vs. Blue Jays
What makes the Yankees such a terrifying team to face is that they can put runs on the board in a hurry. Even in Game 2, they managed to fill the run column, but they simply allowed the Blue Jays to score too many runs, rendering that moot in the end.
But in Game 3, the Yankees showed out; Judge went 3-4 with four RBIs, Trent Grisham scored two runs after doing a terrific job of setting the table, while Giancarlo Stanton drove in the runs the Yankees needed when he came up to the plate.
Game 4 of this ALDS matchup will be tomorrow night at 7:08 PM E.T.
