Aaron Judge missed on a big chance, two Yankee bullpen cogs wobbled and Alejandro Kirk homered twice Saturday as the Blue Jays routed the Yankees, 10-1, in the opener of their ALDS at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
Toronto also got a much better outing from their starter, Kevin Gausman, than the Yankees did from Luis Gil,who was yanked after only 2.2 innings. The Jays scored four runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to wreck a tight game.
The Yanks will try to even up the series Sunday in Game 2. They were the second-best road team in MLB this year, but that has not translated to Toronto. They are now 1-7 at Rogers Centre this year.
Toronto’s Game 1 victory was the Jays’ first postseason win since Game 4 of the 2016 AL Championship Series. Toronto had been mired in a seven-game playoff losing streak.
Here are the takeaways…
– The baseball world has been waiting for Judge, who took a .212 postseason average into Saturday, to have a breakout October and he had a key opportunity in the sixth inning of Game 1 with the Yanks down, 2-0. The inning started when Anthony Volpe swatted a ball off the left-field wall for a leadoff double. Austin Wells followed with a single and Trent Grisham walked, loading the bases and bringing up Judge, who entered the game with a career average of .354 against Gausman and six home runs. After a tense, eight-pitch battle, Judge struck out, swinging and missing at a Gausman splitter that dove out of the strike zone. Gausman set up the outside pitch by throwing a 97-mph fastball inside to Judge, who fouled it off. The Yankees scored when Gausman threw four straight balls to Cody Bellinger, but they could not tack on. Gausman retired Ben Rice on a popup for the second out and then Toronto manager John Schneider replaced Gausman with righty Louis Varland. With Giancarlo Stanton up and a 1-2 count, Varland threw a 101-mph fastball past Stanton’s hard cut for the final out of the inning.
– Judge has been hitting so far this postseason — he was 2-for-4 in Game 1 with a single and a double and is batting .400 this October with a .905 OPS.
– Except for the bases-loaded walk, Gausman was excellent for Toronto, getting quick outs and using his mid-80s splitter to generate whiffs. The Yankees swung at the pitch 17 times and missed 10 of them, according to Baseball Savant. Overall, Gausman allowed one run and four hits in 5.2 innings, striking out three and walking two. He had only 50 pitches after five scoreless innings, but the Yankees made him work in the sixth inning and though he got Judge in a big spot, the Jays went to the bullpen for the final out of that frame.
– Yankee starters were mostly excellent in the first round victory over Boston, fashioning a 1.33 ERA and delivering 20.1 innings in three games. But that ended quickly in the ALDS. Gil lasted only 2.2 innings and gave up two runs and four hits. He struck out two and walked none. He gave up two early home runs and the Jays looked pretty comfortable against him. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered in the first inning and Kirk slammed a 392-foot homer in the second. Gil is generally adept at suppressing home runs – he allowed 0.8 per nine innings this season and his career mark is around one per nine.
– Guerrero’s homer was a solo shot and his first longball since Sept. 5, a span of 90 plate appearances. It was also Guerrero’s first career playoff homer and perhaps a start at altering the October perception of him – he came into the game with a career average of .136 and a .422 OPS in his first six career postseason games, all losses. Guerrero also made a terrific defensive play at first in the second inning, a diving, backhand snare of a Ryan McMahon liner that he took to the first-base bag for an unassisted double play. He finished the day 3-for-4 with two RBI.
– Luke Weaver’s woes this postseason continued when he came in to start the seventh, an inning that devolved into a four-run bonanza for Toronto. Weaver walked Daulton Varsho leading off and then gave up a single to Anthony Santander. The lone glimmer of that particular play came when Judge threw the ball all the way to third, perhaps lessening some of the concerns about his injured elbow. But with first and third against Weaver, Andrés Giménez singled through a drawn-in infield to drive in an insurance run and put Toronto up, 3-1. Weaver has faced six batters so far in the playoffs and all of them have reached base. He was removed in favor of Fernando Cruz. But, one out later, Cruz allowed a two-run double to Nathan Lukes and a sac fly to Guerrero, ballooning Toronto’s lead to 6-1. According to the Fox broadcast, the Jays were 71-4 when scoring five-plus runs, the best such mark in MLB.
– Kirk hit his second homer of the game, leading off the eighth inning, connecting against Paul Blackburn. Including his homer flurry at the end of the regular season, Kirk has five home runs in his last three games.
– Perhaps the Yankees could’ve kick-started their offense early against Gausman, but they came out on the wrong side of a quirky play. Grisham seemed to foul a ball off his toe leading off, but umpires did not see it, and Yankee arguments did not sway them. The ball went to Guerrero for a 3-unassisted, giving Gausman an easy, first-pitch out.
Game MVP: Alejandro Kirk
Kirk, who became the fourth player in Blue Jays history to have a multi-homer game in the playoffs.
Highlights
Cody Bellinger walks in the first Yankees run! pic.twitter.com/BM5B3cOz1c
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 4, 2025
What's next
The Yankees and Blue Jays continue their best-of-five series on Sunday. First pitch is set for 4:08 p.m.
New York will send ace Max Fried to the mound with Toronto countering with Trey Yesavage.
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