{"id":200014,"date":"2025-10-09T11:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/200014\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T11:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:38:08","slug":"blue-jays-use-collective-effort-to-eliminate-yankees-advance-to-alcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/200014\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays use collective effort to eliminate Yankees, advance to ALCS"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Essentially, a bullpen day is utilizing relievers in a game of counting outs during which, in the words of John Schneider,\u00a0\u201cyou try to thread the needle a little bit.\u201d An apt analogy for trying to steal three outs with one arm, five or six with another, eventually getting to 27 in a positive way. Executed well, they\u2019re an effective tool, and the Los Angeles Dodgers used four of them en route to a World Series title last year. Still, for the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> on Wednesday night, running one while trying to close out the New York Yankees<\/a> without a decisive fifth game and advancing to the American League Championship Series in the process, felt somewhat like trying to stuff a climbing rope through a needle\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

No matter, as once again, the Blue Jays used collective contributions from across their roster, as they so often have in this convention-defying season, to do precisely that, stitching their way into baseball\u2019s final four like the deftest of tailors with a 5-2 victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first team through the division series round, they\u2019ll now host the winner of Friday\u2019s Game 5 between the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers in the ALCS opener Sunday, having dispatched the AL East rival that finished with the same 94-68 record and celebrated on the Yankee Stadium field amid all those so-called ghosts New York so loves to exalt.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust such a picture of resilience, determination, team effort, so many of the values that are easy to celebrate and you aspire to when you think about building an organization, not just a team,\u201d Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro, leaning against the dugout railing amid the party around him, said in an interview. \u201cThese guys, they really personify that \u2026 And I was proud. That’s how it felt. That and the silence in Yankee Stadium, that’s the greatest sound. I’ve heard it twice in my career. And as much as I would always want to celebrate at home, this would be the second-best place in the world, because there’s nothing better than hearing complete silence and just 30 guys in the middle of the field. It’s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ernie Clement, who had two more hits and scored twice to finish the ALDS 9-for-14 with five runs and five RBIs, echoed those sentiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just a beautiful thing that we did this in New York,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have such a good team and to beat a great ball club, it’s really sweet, especially because they’re in our division. To do it on their home field feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n

So too did the way they pulled off the franchise\u2019s first series win since the 2016 ALDS versus the Texas Rangers, the day after surrendering a 6-1 lead in a 9-6 loss that extended the best-of-five series.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays started with four outs from opener Louis Varland<\/a>, who pitched in each of the four games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll throw every day if I\u2019m asked to, I’m prepared to go every day, any amount of innings,\u201d said Varland, who described his mindset as, \u201cset the tone, set the tone. I gave up a single to Aaron Judge, but I’m fine with giving up a single to him. He’s a good hitter. Still put up a zero, got another out, it was a great start to the bullpen game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Mason Fluharty followed with three outs. Then came something of a wrinkle with five outs from Seranthony Domiguez, unusually entering during the third inning for a pocket beginning with Judge.<\/p>\n

“Obviously it’s a great lineup top to bottom, but it all kind of revolves around Judge, so the conversation starts and ends there, who do we want matching up with him as often as possible?\u201d said bullpen coach Graham Johnson. \u201cWe had our guys identified and then everything else worked off of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added pitching coach Pete Walker:\u00a0\u201cThinking about it and talking it through, it’s important to keep those runs to a minimum early, to give your offence a chance to maybe get a little separation and maybe take a little more pressure off somebody else. We went Seranthony early in the game, we wanted to keep the momentum to a minimum on their side. That was a real important piece and something that made a lot of sense to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eric Lauer<\/a>, taking over after George Springer\u2019s go-ahead sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth, followed with another five outs. Yariel Rodriguez got Jazz Chisholm Jr. with two on and two out to end the sixth and, after Nathan Lukes\u2019 two-run single opened some more breathing room, Brendon Little threw a clean seventh. After Myles Straw added an RBI single in the top half of the eighth, Braydon Fisher got two outs but left two on for Jeff Hoffman, who escaped the eighth and then worked around a Judge RBI single to silence a crowd of 47,823.<\/p>\n

Combined, they allowed the two runs on six hits and six walks with 10 strikeouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was kind of crazy,\u201d said Dominguez. \u201cThat’s a lot of people coming in and a lot of people have to do their job to win the ballgame. I’m happy all my teammates did a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Lauer: \u201cIt’s the same thing that we’ve done all year. Every guy does their job and hopefully we come out on top. And if a lot of guys do their job really well, we’re definitely coming out on top. That’s what it’s been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker, also pitching coach for the Blue Jays during the 2015 and \u201916 runs to the NLCS, was particularly emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m ecstatic for them,\u201d he said. \u201cGoing in, they knew what they’re up against. They knew what we’re thinking, how we’re going to use them in different spots, everything was kind of flexible, but they were very open to it. They were ready to go and \u2026 that is not easy. And I give these guys a ton of credit to keep that lineup over there to minimal runs. Just a fantastic job top to bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tapestry finale capped a series featuring monster performances from both Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/a>, whose RBI single in the first opened the scoring, and Judge, duelling in what Giancarlo Stanton described as watching \u201cjuggernauts go back and forth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerrero reached base 11 times and drove in nine runs during the series while Judge reached 13 times while driving in five, both a strategic threat each time their turn came up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re going to come across great players in the post-season, that’s the reality of it,\u201d said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. \u201c (Guerrero) is one of the great hitters in the game and someone that we’ve got to make sure we execute at the highest level if we’re going to have success against him. \u2026 You’ve got to be able to navigate it to keep moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Jays manager John Schneider said the impact both made \u201chas been as advertised,\u201d calling it good for baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

But \u201cmore importantly, you can’t get caught up in that too much,\u201d he added. \u201cWe’ve talked about nine-on-one. We’ve talked about 13 guys contributing every single day. The minute that you feel like you have to do it all yourself is when things start to go the wrong way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays did that far better than the Yankees in the series clincher.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you celebrate, you want to continue. We’ve got to continue to play the game the right way and do what we’ve been doing right now,\u201d said Guerrero. \u201cThe job is not finished. We’ve got eight more to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springer led off the game with a double and scored on Guerrero\u2019s RBI single off Cam Schlittler for a 1-0 lead in the first, and that stood until Ryan McMahon\u2019s solo shot in the third tied it up. Clement opened the fifth with a single and Andres Gimenez followed with a chopper up the middle that Schlittler pulled his glove back from, with the ball just sneaking past Jazz Chisholm to put men on the corners. Springer\u2019s fly ball to centre made it a 2-1 game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s who we are as a team,\u201d said Springer. \u201cWe fight, we claw, all day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clement started another rally in the seventh with a base hit and again took third when another Gimenez chopper up the middle glanced off Chisholm\u2019s glove for an error. Gimenez stole second on a Springer strikeout to put men on second and third and both scored on a single from Lukes.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays tacked on another in the eighth when Alejandro Kirk doubled off Camilo Doval, advanced to third on a Daulton Varsho flyout and scored when Straw dunked an 0-2 single to right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a really good indication of just how our team is, every single guy contributing,\u201d said Clement. \u201cWe rely on each other and it takes everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Boone: \u201cCredit to the Blue Jays and the year they’ve had. They beat us this series, simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked before the game how his team was handling Tuesday\u2019s disappointment, Lukes said \u201cIt\u2019s over with \u2013 we\u2019re good at turning the page.\u201d The Blue Jays went out and showed just that, and now it\u2019s on to the next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Essentially, a bullpen day is utilizing relievers in a game of counting outs during which,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-200014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}