NEW YORK — Late Wednesday and into early Thursday, as clubhouse attendees taped together boxes for players to pack and everyone said their goodbyes for the winter, a sense of disbelief hovered over the New York Yankees.
Their season ended Wednesday night with a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 4 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium to extend their championship drought to a 16th season, the third longest in franchise history.
Standing in the Yankees’ way to the championship series was the team that stood in their way of the AL East title.
Win, and the pressure would shift to the Blue Jays to avoid a collapse in Game 5 at home.
As a team, the Blue Jays batted .338 with a .974 OPS in the series.
NEW YORK — A sense of incredulity hung over the New York Yankees late Wednesday and early Thursday as clubhouse fans taped together boxes for players to pack and everyone bid farewell for the winter.
The Yankees, from manager Aaron Boone to superstar Aaron Judge and beyond, thought that this team was more complete, more talented, and more capable of handling October than the team that won the World Series the previous year.
However, the Yankees in 2025 won’t make it to the World Series. They won’t even make it to the Championship Series of the American League. They lost 5-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 4 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night, ending their season and making it the third-longest championship drought in the team’s history.
“It’s difficult to explain,” Judge remarked. We failed to fulfill our duties and achieve the objective. Despite having a unique group and many exceptional players who contributed to the fun this year, we were unable to win the grand prize. “.”.
The same team that prevented the Yankees from winning the AL East was preventing them from reaching the championship series. When the two teams finished with identical AL-best 94-68 records, Toronto defeated the Yankees 8-5 in the regular season to win the tiebreaker that ultimately led to a bye through the wild-card round.
Even though the Yankees’ first two games in the series were ugly—Toronto beat them 23–8 in landslides at Rogers Centre—they came to work on Wednesday feeling buoyant after Judge, who has been dominating at the plate this postseason, hit a huge three-run home run in Game 3 to help them prolong their season.
In the 21st meeting of the year between the division rivals, they had the pitching advantage on paper: rookie Cam Schlittler, fresh off a historic eight-inning performance in the wild-card series, facing a host of well-known relievers. The Blue Jays would be under pressure to win Game 5 at home in order to prevent a collapse.
Schlittler pitched well enough to give New York a chance to avoid elimination, but he did not look like the dominant force that held the Boston Red Sox scoreless in an elimination game the week before. But the Yankees blew the chance, scoring only two runs off of six hits. In the sixth and seventh innings, they left the bases loaded, and in the eighth, they left two runners on base.
“It’s brutal,” said Anthony Volpe, the shortstop for the Yankees, who went 1-for-15 with 10 strikeouts. It’s kind of shocking me. “..”.
The Blue Jays outscored New York 34–19 to advance to the ALCS for the first time since 2016 and added 12 more hits to reach 50 in the series. In the first four postseason games, the 34 runs were the fourth-highest total scored by a team. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. To counter Judge, who went 13-for-26 in the postseason to become the sixth player in history to hit at least .500 in a single postseason, he put up a strong showing, going 9-for-17 with three home runs and nine RBIs.
The supporting casts were where things differed. To finish 9-for-14 in the series, Toronto utilityman Ernie Clement recorded three consecutive multihit games. Daulton Varsho went 7-for-16 as a center fielder. Two home runs were hit by catcher Alejandro Kirk. Three hits were recorded by Addison Barger in Game 4. In the seventh, Nathan Lukes added two more, including a game-changing two-run single that put Toronto ahead 4-1. In the eighth inning, Myles Straw singled to score the game-winning run after coming off the bench. The Blue Jays batted .338 as a team and finished the series with a .974 OPS.
Austin Wells, the catcher for the Yankees, stated, “It felt like, every time they had a guy in scoring position, they didn’t miss and they scored.”. “They made every effort to get the ball into play. Also, they were prepared. From the first at-bat, they were on it. That was amazing. “.
“They brought it to us this series,” Boone said. “.
Boone did not hold back when he stated that he thought this year’s team was the most talented in his eight seasons on the top step as the regular season came to a close and his team settled into form. It featured a strong rotation, a bullpen with a number of seasoned veterans, speed, power, and an enhanced defense. He saw a way to get to the World Series. He wasn’t alone.
