The Toronto Blue Jays are on the edge of their first victory in the playoff series in almost a decade, with their first opportunity to advance to the next round on Tuesday night at the Bronx after dominating their two games at home against the New York Yankees.
Game 3 of the American League division series (ALDS) will begin just after 8 pm et.
Jeffrey Mizen, a fan of Jays born in Ontario who lives in the state of New York, will go to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, hoping to see something special developed.
“I know they will win,” he told the Canadian press. “They are playing fantastic.”
On this side of the border, Toronto Superfan Lesley Mak also feels “really well” about the potential of the team to deepen the playoffs.
“Destiny’s team feels unstoppable,” Mak said by email.
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With a 2-0 advantage in the best division series of the five, Jays only need one more victory to move on to the next playoff round, the American League Championship Series (ALCS). The team also arrived at the ALCS in 2015 and 2016.
Meanwhile, Yankees face a time to do or die in game 3 on Tuesday. And if they get a victory over Toronto, they will face the same stage in a possible game 4 Wednesday, also at 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 is a summary.
2-0? How did that happen?
The Jays offensive exploded for 23 combined races in the first two games. And its initial launch was excellent in both days too.
The game of Saturday 1 saw Toronto beat New York 10-1, with a homer of the superstar of the Jays Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the first since the beginning of September, and the receiver Alejandro Kirk exploding two long balls.
The Blue Jays starter on Saturday, Kevin Gausman, did not allow a single race for five tickets, then fought against the Yankees star, Aaron Judge, who fell balanced with the bases loaded in the sixth. Gausman managed to limit the damage to a single race when he walked through the next batter, and received a vital backup of Louis Varland, who threw a 101 mph heater to hit the Yankees Slugger Giancarlo Stanton to end the entrance.
The Jays presented even more races on Sunday, beating the Yankees 13-7, an unequal score that denied the fact that Toronto’s rookie inaugurator, Yesavage, struck out 11 batters (a franchise playoff record), and did not deliver a single race.
It was the Bullpen of Toronto who produced those races, no Yesavage, 22, whose epic performance came only in his fourth beginning of the major leagues.
The rookie launcher, Trey Yesavage, accumulated the strikeouts in his debut in the playoffs, since he helped the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the New York Yankees to take a 2-0 advantage in the American League division series.
The Blue Jays hit five home runs in game 2: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. parked a great blow to the second cover of the Rogers Center, Daulton Varsho hit two home runs, and Ernie Clement and George Springer also knocked down one outside the park.
“They were so dominant on the plate,” Mak said, summarizing the offensive Toronto unleashed in games 1 and 2.
Who is ready for game 3?
Shane Bieber, a former winner of the Cy Young award with experience in playoffs, starts for Toronto.
The 30 -year -old joined Toronto through an agreement made with Cleveland on the exchange deadline. Through seven seasonal openings for Toronto, Bieber was 4-2, struggling 37 batters in just over 40 tickets.
He is matching Carlos Rodón from the Yankees, a 32 -year -old veteran who won 18 regular seasonal games.
The only MLB launcher who won the most regular seasonal games was Rodón’s teammate, Max Fried, the Yankees pitcher who set the Jays on fire for seven races won on Sunday.
Is a sweep possible?
A sweep could happen, of course. But it is not necessarily probable.
The Yankees are a strong team, winning 94 games during the regular season, the same as the tiles.
However, Toronto obtained the division title because the team won more games than New York when they played during the regular season.
Winning the title meant that the Jays had almost a week of rest, while the Yankees had to fight against Boston’s red socks in a wild series that went to three games.
Speaking of the Wildcard series, in recent years, Toronto has been swept on multiple occasions, in 2020, 2022 and 2023, but those outputs arrived in a shorter Wildcard series.
In 2016, the Blue Jays swept the Texas Rangers in the ALD, marking the first time Toronto achieved a sweep of playoffs.
How useful is a 2-0 advantage?
Associated Press reports that the teams with a 2-0 advantage in the best past-man-posted series have won 80 of 90 times.
However, two Yankees previous squadrons are among the teams that have set up a successful return in these circumstances.
How safe are the Yankees?
The Yankees manager, Aaron Boone, says he has “a ton of confidence in Rodón, its headline for mandatory gain 3 game, and says that the Yankees have been” playing with much at stake every day “, for weeks.
The veteran baseball writer Ken Rosenthal also believes that the Yankees have shown that they can dig when they need it, pointing to their career of 11-1 at the end of the regular season.
“The challenge they face is not unsurpassed,” Rosenthal wrote in The Athletic on Monday.
Other baseball observers are skeptical. Yankees can turn the script.
“Things look gloomy, and the Yankees are only to blame,” said New York Post, Jon Heyman, in a recent column, questioning whether a change is possible.
The member of the MLB Hall of Fame and the three -time World Series champion, David Ortiz, believes that the Yankees will not defeat the Soaring Blue Jays.
“This alignment of the Toronto Blue Jays is not playing,” Ortiz said during a Fox Sports transmission.
Who do they face if they win?
If the Jays win on Tuesday, their opponent in an ALS series of the best of seven would be the Seattle sailors or the Detroit tigers.
After that, it is the World Series, another battle of the best of seven that faces the superior team of the American League against the National League Top team.
The last victory of the Jays at that level was more than 30 years ago when they became consecutive World Series champions, demolishing the Braves of Atlanta in 1992, and the Philadelphia Philis in 1993.
