The Toronto Blue Jays are on the verge of their first playoff series victory in nearly a decade, with their first chance to advance to the next round coming Tuesday evening in the Bronx after dominating their two home games against the New York Yankees.
Game 3 of the American League Division Series (ALDS) is set to start just after 8 p.m. ET.
Jeffrey Mizen, an Ontario-born Jays fan who lives in New York state, will be heading to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, hoping to see something special unfold.
“I know they’re gonna win,” he told The Canadian Press. “They’re playing fantastic.”
On this side of the border, Toronto superfan Lesley Mak is also feeling “really good” about the team’s potential to go deeper into the playoffs.
“The team of destiny feels unstoppable,” Mak said via email.
Get the latest on CBCNews.ca, the CBC News App, and CBC News Network for breaking news and analysis.
With a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five divisional series, the Jays need just one more win to move on to the next playoff round, the American League Championship Series (ALCS). The team also made it to the ALCS in 2015 and 2016.
Meanwhile, the Yankees face a do-or-die moment in Game 3 Tuesday. And if they pull out a win over Toronto, they’ll face the same scenario in a potential Game 4 on Wednesday, also in the Bronx.
If Game 5 is necessary, that will take place in Toronto on Friday.
So how did the Jays get to this point? Here’s a recap.
2-0? How did that happen?
The Jays’ offence exploded for a combined 23 runs in the first two games. And their starting pitching was excellent on both days as well.
Saturday’s Game 1 saw Toronto beat New York 10-1, with a home run from Jays superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — his first since early September — and catcher Alejandro Kirk blasting two long balls.
Saturday’s Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman didn’t allow a single run for five innings, then battled Yankees star Aaron Judge, who went down swinging with the bases loaded in the sixth. Gausman managed to limit the damage to a single run when he walked the next batter, and got vital backup from reliever Louis Varland, who threw a 101-mph heater to strike out Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton to end the inning.
The Jays put up even more runs Sunday, beating the Yankees 13-7 — a lopsided score that belied the fact that Toronto rookie starter Trey Yesavage struck out 11 batters (a franchise playoff record), and didn’t surrender a single run.
It was the Toronto bullpen that yielded those runs — not 22-year-old Yesavage, whose epic performance came in just his fourth-ever major-league start.
Rookie starting pitcher Trey Yesavage racked up the strikeouts in his playoff debut as he helped the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the New York Yankees to take a 2-0 lead in the American League Division Series.
The Blue Jays hit five homers in Game 2 — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. parked a grand slam into the second deck of Rogers Centre, Daulton Varsho hit two homers, and Ernie Clement and George Springer each knocked one out of the park as well.
“They were so dominant at the plate,” said Mak, summing up the offence that Toronto unleashed in Games 1 and 2.
Who’s up for Game 3?
Shane Bieber, a former Cy Young Award winner with playoff experience, gets the start for Toronto.
The 30-year-old joined Toronto via a deal made with Cleveland at the trade deadline. Through seven late-season starts for Toronto, Bieber went 4-2, striking out 37 batters in just over 40 innings.
He’s matching up against the Yankees’ Carlos Rodón — a 32-year-old veteran who won 18 regular season games.
The only MLB pitcher who won more regular-season games was Rodón’s teammate Max Fried — the Yankees pitcher who the Jays torched for seven earned runs on Sunday.
Is a sweep possible?
A sweep could happen, sure. But it’s not necessarily likely.
The Yankees are a strong team, winning 94 games during the regular season — the same as the Blue Jays.
However, Toronto got the division title because the team won more games than New York when they played each other during the regular season.
Winning the title meant the Jays got almost a week of rest while the Yankees had to battle the Boston Red Sox in a wildcard series that went to three games.
Speaking of wildcard series, in recent years, Toronto has been swept on multiple occasions — in 2020, 2022 and 2023 — but those exits came in shorter wildcard series.
In 2016, the Blue Jays swept the Texas Rangers in the ALDS, marking the first time Toronto ever achieved a playoff sweep.
How helpful is a 2-0 lead?
The Associated Press reports that teams with a 2-0 lead in past best-of-five post-season series have won 80 of 90 times.
However, two past Yankees squads are among teams that have mounted a successful comebacks under these circumstances.
How confident are the Yankees?
Yankees manager Aaron Boone says he has “a ton” of confidence in Rodón, his starter for the must-win Game 3, and says the Yankees have been “playing with a lot on the line every single day,” for weeks.
Veteran baseball writer Ken Rosenthal likewise believes the Yankees have shown they can dig when they need to, pointing to their 11-1 run at the end of the regular season.
“The challenge they face is not insurmountable,” Rosenthal wrote in The Athletic on Monday.
Other baseball observers are skeptical the Yankees can flip the script.
“Things are looking bleak, and the Yankees have only themselves to blame,” New York Post baseball writer Jon Heyman said in a recent column, questioning if a turnaround is possible.
MLB Hall of Famer and three-time World Series champion David Ortiz believes the Yankees won’t take down the soaring Blue Jays.
“This Toronto Blue Jays lineup ain’t playing around,” Ortiz said during a Fox Sports broadcast.
Papi on the Yankees being down 2-0:<br><br>”They can bring Jesus back, and they’re still going to Cancun. It’s over. It’s a wrap.” 😂 <a href=”https://t.co/vRcPuq8gxk”>pic.twitter.com/vRcPuq8gxk</a>
—@MLBONFOX
Who do they face if they win?
If the Jays win on Tuesday, their opponent in a best-of-seven ALCS series would be either the Seattle Mariners or the Detroit Tigers.
After that, it’s the World Series, another best-of-seven battle pitting the top American League team against the top National League team.
The Jays’ last victory at that level was more than 30 years ago when they became back-to-back World Series champs, taking down the Atlanta Braves in 1992, and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1993.
