TORONTO — Aaron Judge walked to the plate in the top of the 10th with two outs and two on looking to put an end to all this Monday night.
With one good swing, the Yankees slugger could give the Bombers their first American League East title since 2019. With a really, really good swing, he could touch history. He waited patiently as the Blue Jays swapped out relievers. He studied from the on-deck circle as Tim Mayza warmed up.
Judge walked back to the plate as the crowd began to go crazy. And Blue Jays manager John Schneider held up four fingers. The Yankees and Judge would have to wait another day. Clarke Schmidt gave up a walk-off, line drive single to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as the Blue Jays rallied to beat the Yankees 3-2 in 10 innings in front of 34,307 at Rogers Centre.
“A game on the line? That’s where you wanna hit. That’s why I did all the work to put myself in a position to go out there and help the team out and I was gonna win right there,” Judge said. “But I trust every single guy in our lineup and every single guy on our bench and especially the guys behind me, Anthony Rizzo day in and day out throughout this whole season has always come up with big spots, but today we didn’t do it.
“We just got to show up tomorrow and get it done.”
The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Yankees (94-59) and delayed what the team hopes is inevitable. The Bombers came into the game with a magic number of two, meaning they need one win in this three-game series to clinch the American League East and the No. 2 seed in the American League playoffs. The Blue Jays (87-67) dropped their magic number to clinch a playoff spot to three.
For the sixth straight game, Judge did not hit a home run. He remains at 60 for the regular season and one shy of the American League single-season and Yankee franchise record set by Roger Maris in 1961.
Judge is 5-for-18 with eight walks since his last home run, No. 60, which came almost a week ago. His longest home run drought this season is nine games.
Right now, he’s not getting a lot to hit.
“I know no pitcher wants to be the one who gives up No.61,” starter Luis Severino said. “So they are pitching him carefully.”
In the first inning, Judge saw four pitches, lining a single into right field. He ended up scoring the Yankees’ first run on Gleyber Torres’ sacrifice fly. In his second at-bat, Judge worked a six-pitch walk. In the sixth inning, Kevin Gausman caught Judge looking at an 85-mph slider. In the eighth, Yimi Garcia fell behind Judge 3-1, but got him to strike out swinging on a 91-mph slider that was low and away.
In the top of the 10th, after the Blue Jays intentionally walked Judge to load the bases, Mayza got Rizzo to ground out to eliminate the threat.
In his second start back since coming off the injured list, Severino was able to get his pitch count up to 76 pitches. He probably could have gone deeper in the game, but some shaky defense behind him shortened his outing.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit his fourth home run of the season in the second inning. The 404-foot shot to left-center field was the 10th home run the Yankees have hit since Judge hit his last on Sept. 20. It also gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the fourth, the Yankees shortstop helped give it right back. With Bo Bichette on first, he let a Guerrero Jr. hard-hit ground ball eat him up. Severino walked Alejandro Kirk and then Teoscar Hernandez hit one off the center field wall. While he admired that, Judge fired the rebound to Kiner-Falefa. Hernandez got a late start out of the box after a slow walk and bat flip, giving the Yankees had a chance to get him at second base. But Kiner-Falefa fired home and could not beat the second runner.
Severino was charged with those two runs. He finished the outing with three walks and hits apiece in four innings of work.
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