Blue Jays use collective effort to eliminate Yankees, advance to ALCS

NEW YORK — Essentially, a bullpen day is utilizing relievers in a game of counting outs during which, in the words of John Schneider, “you try to thread the needle a little bit.” An apt analogy for trying to steal three outs with one arm, five or six with another, eventually getting to 27 in a positive way. Executed well, they’re an effective tool, and the Los Angeles Dodgers used four of them en route to a World Series title last year. Still, for the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night, running one while trying to close out the New York Yankees without a decisive fifth game and advancing to the American League Championship Series in the process, felt somewhat like trying to stuff a climbing rope through a needle’s eye.

No matter, as once again, the Blue Jays used collective contributions from across their roster, as they so often have in this convention-defying season, to do precisely that, stitching their way into baseball’s final four like the deftest of tailors with a 5-2 victory. 

The first team through the division series round, they’ll now host the winner of Friday’s Game 5 between the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers in the ALCS opener Sunday, having dispatched the AL East rival that finished with the same 94-68 record and celebrated on the Yankee Stadium field amid all those so-called ghosts New York so loves to exalt.

“Just such a picture of resilience, determination, team effort, so many of the values that are easy to celebrate and you aspire to when you think about building an organization, not just a team,” Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro, leaning against the dugout railing amid the party around him, said in an interview. “These guys, they really personify that … And I was proud. That’s how it felt. That and the silence in Yankee Stadium, that’s the greatest sound. I’ve heard it twice in my career. And as much as I would always want to celebrate at home, this would be the second-best place in the world, because there’s nothing better than hearing complete silence and just 30 guys in the middle of the field. It’s unbelievable.”

Ernie Clement, who had two more hits and scored twice to finish the ALDS 9-for-14 with five runs and five RBIs, echoed those sentiments.

“It’s just a beautiful thing that we did this in New York,” he said. “They have such a good team and to beat a great ball club, it’s really sweet, especially because they’re in our division. To do it on their home field feels good.”

So too did the way they pulled off the franchise’s first series win since the 2016 ALDS versus the Texas Rangers, the day after surrendering a 6-1 lead in a 9-6 loss that extended the best-of-five series.

The Blue Jays started with four outs from opener Louis Varland, who pitched in each of the four games. 

“I’ll throw every day if I’m asked to, I’m prepared to go every day, any amount of innings,” said Varland, who described his mindset as, “set the tone, set the tone. I gave up a single to Aaron Judge, but I’m fine with giving up a single to him. He’s a good hitter. Still put up a zero, got another out, it was a great start to the bullpen game.”

Mason Fluharty followed with three outs. Then came something of a wrinkle with five outs from Seranthony Domiguez, unusually entering during the third inning for a pocket beginning with Judge.

“Obviously it’s a great lineup top to bottom, but it all kind of revolves around Judge, so the conversation starts and ends there, who do we want matching up with him as often as possible?” said bullpen coach Graham Johnson. “We had our guys identified and then everything else worked off of that.”

Added pitching coach Pete Walker: “Thinking about it and talking it through, it’s important to keep those runs to a minimum early, to give your offence a chance to maybe get a little separation and maybe take a little more pressure off somebody else. We went Seranthony early in the game, we wanted to keep the momentum to a minimum on their side. That was a real important piece and something that made a lot of sense to us.”

Eric Lauer, taking over after George Springer’s go-ahead sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth, followed with another five outs. Yariel Rodriguez got Jazz Chisholm Jr. with two on and two out to end the sixth and, after Nathan Lukes’ two-run single opened some more breathing room, Brendon Little threw a clean seventh. After Myles Straw added an RBI single in the top half of the eighth, Braydon Fisher got two outs but left two on for Jeff Hoffman, who escaped the eighth and then worked around a Judge RBI single to silence a crowd of 47,823.

Combined, they allowed the two runs on six hits and six walks with 10 strikeouts. 

“That was kind of crazy,” said Dominguez. “That’s a lot of people coming in and a lot of people have to do their job to win the ballgame. I’m happy all my teammates did a great job.”

Said Lauer: “It’s the same thing that we’ve done all year. Every guy does their job and hopefully we come out on top. And if a lot of guys do their job really well, we’re definitely coming out on top. That’s what it’s been.”

Walker, also pitching coach for the Blue Jays during the 2015 and ’16 runs to the NLCS, was particularly emotional.

“I’m ecstatic for them,” he said. “Going in, they knew what they’re up against. They knew what we’re thinking, how we’re going to use them in different spots, everything was kind of flexible, but they were very open to it. They were ready to go and … that is not easy. And I give these guys a ton of credit to keep that lineup over there to minimal runs. Just a fantastic job top to bottom.”

The tapestry finale capped a series featuring monster performances from both Vladimir Guerrero Jr., whose RBI single in the first opened the scoring, and Judge, duelling in what Giancarlo Stanton described as watching “juggernauts go back and forth.”

Guerrero reached base 11 times and drove in nine runs during the series while Judge reached 13 times while driving in five, both a strategic threat each time their turn came up.

“You’re going to come across great players in the post-season, that’s the reality of it,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “ (Guerrero) is one of the great hitters in the game and someone that we’ve got to make sure we execute at the highest level if we’re going to have success against him. … You’ve got to be able to navigate it to keep moving.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider said the impact both made “has been as advertised,” calling it good for baseball.”

But “more importantly, you can’t get caught up in that too much,” he added. “We’ve talked about nine-on-one. We’ve talked about 13 guys contributing every single day. The minute that you feel like you have to do it all yourself is when things start to go the wrong way.”

The Blue Jays did that far better than the Yankees in the series clincher.

“When you celebrate, you want to continue. We’ve got to continue to play the game the right way and do what we’ve been doing right now,” said Guerrero. “The job is not finished. We’ve got eight more to go.”

Springer led off the game with a double and scored on Guerrero’s RBI single off Cam Schlittler for a 1-0 lead in the first, and that stood until Ryan McMahon’s solo shot in the third tied it up. Clement opened the fifth with a single and Andres Gimenez followed with a chopper up the middle that Schlittler pulled his glove back from, with the ball just sneaking past Jazz Chisholm to put men on the corners. Springer’s fly ball to centre made it a 2-1 game.

“That’s who we are as a team,” said Springer. “We fight, we claw, all day.” 

Clement started another rally in the seventh with a base hit and again took third when another Gimenez chopper up the middle glanced off Chisholm’s glove for an error. Gimenez stole second on a Springer strikeout to put men on second and third and both scored on a single from Lukes.

The Blue Jays tacked on another in the eighth when Alejandro Kirk doubled off Camilo Doval, advanced to third on a Daulton Varsho flyout and scored when Straw dunked an 0-2 single to right.

“It’s a really good indication of just how our team is, every single guy contributing,” said Clement. “We rely on each other and it takes everybody.”

Said Boone: “Credit to the Blue Jays and the year they’ve had. They beat us this series, simple as that.”

Asked before the game how his team was handling Tuesday’s disappointment, Lukes said “It’s over with – we’re good at turning the page.” The Blue Jays went out and showed just that, and now it’s on to the next.

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