The Yankees didn’t pull off one of the most dramatic postseason comebacks in history on their own.
Sure, the bullpen was fantastic, Aaron Judge shed his playoff issues and Jazz Chisholm Jr. delivered a huge blow.
But without some terrible defense from the typically solid Blue Jays, the Yankees’ 9-6 win in Game 3 of the ALDS likely wouldn’t have happened.
It began with former Yankee Isiah Kiner-Falefa botching Ben Rice’s hard grounder to second that would have ended a scoreless bottom of the first inning with Toronto still up by two runs.
But Kiner-Falefa booted the ball and then couldn’t pick it up in time.
Instead of the inning being over, Giancarlo Stanton followed with a run-scoring single to left to make it 2-1.
And then came the fourth inning, when Addison Barger, who pinch-hit for Kiner-Falefa in the third and then went to third base in the bottom of the inning, dropped Austin Wells’ pop-up to shallow left.
Wells hustled into second on the two-base error and after Trent Grisham walked, Judge brought the Yankees all the way back from what had been a five-run deficit with a three-run homer off Louis Varland that bounced off the left field foul pole.
The Blue Jays weren’t done with their miscues, as Anthony Santander failed to make a diving catch of Cody Bellinger’s liner to right in the sixth.
Judge went to third on the play and scored on Ben Rice’s sacrifice fly to right to add an insurance run.
In all, the Blue Jays allowed a pair of unearned runs during the Yankees’ furious comeback and were unable to survive their mistakes, while the Yankees shook off Bellinger being unable to make a sliding catch in the third that was coupled with Jazz Chisholm Jr. slow to throw to the plate.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
