1st time the Jays and Yankees have faced off in the post-season
Prior to this series, the Jays have not played the Yankees in the post-season.
That’s because when the Jays made the playoffs between 1985 and 1993, there was a different setup for those series, with one team per division going to the post-season. Since the Blue Jays and Yankees are in the same division, there wasn’t a path to a post-season matchup.
In more recent post-season runs, Toronto didn’t play New York. In 2023, the Minnesota Twins swept Toronto out of the wildcard round, and the Seattle Mariners did the same the year before. The Tampa Bay Rays swept Toronto from the wildcard round in 2020.
In 2016, the Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles in a wildcard game, then swept the Texas Rangers in the ALDS. Cleveland knocked Toronto out in the American League Championship Series (ALCS).
In 2015, the Jays bested the Rangers in the ALDS (You may recall slugger José Bautista’s epic bat flip in Game 5), but Toronto then lost the ALCS to the Kansas City Royals, who went on to win the World Series that year.
