It’s do-or-die time for the New York Yankees tonight, as their first Division Series home game of the year will, in fact, be their 2025 finale if they don’t save their season with a win. The Blue Jays utterly dominated the Yankees in all possible aspects across the first two games in Toronto, sending their crowds into a frenzy by obliterating the likes of Max Fried, Luis Gil, Will Warren, and Luke Weaver for a combined 23 runs, backed by eight homers. Meanwhile, the Yanks scored once in Game 1 and while they put
seven on the board in Game 2, they were held hitless until the Jays were already up, 12-0, and their offense came against the dregs of the Toronto bullpen.
In short, everything that has occurred across Games 1 and 2 has to flip. The Bombers have to rake and the pitching has to keep the Jays at bay. The goal will no doubt be to get the Yankee Stadium crowd revved up in a hurry, perhaps with a short first inning from starter Carlos Rodón (who came up with a nice start in the win-or-go-home Wild Card Series Game 2 against Boston last week) and a quick strike on Blue Jays starter Shane Bieber. Nick wrote earlier today about how the Yanks might approach Bieber, who they’ve faced before in the playoffs with Cleveland and recently came back from Tommy John surgery.
But who will the Yankees actually send out against Bieber? Yesterday’s offday saw numerous pundits question whether manager Aaron Boone might make a change from the mostly anemic approach thus far, unless he had more confidence than merited in what was produced at the end of Game 2 in garbage time. Even going back to the Red Sox series, the offense hasn’t been up to regular-season form, tallying only three homers in five games with a .339 slugging percentage.
With that in mind, here’s the Yankees’ just-released starting lineup for the win-or-go-home Game 3:
There was a thought that perhaps at least Paul Goldschmidt would tag in for Ben Rice, but there are no changes to the Yankees’ lineup from the first two games. The hope seems to be that since Bieber is a different style pitcher than the splitter-happy Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage, they will fare better against him. For the sake of the season, let us hope so.
As a point of interest, here’s who Toronto will be using against Rodón, with a note from Jays beat writer Ben Nicholson-Smith. The key matchup to watch will be Rodón vs. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who has utterly owned him with a .588/.667/.941 triple slash in 21 career plate appearances with no strikeouts. Vladdy’s red-hot right now, so Carlos will have to exercise extreme caution.
We desperately want to see the Yankees’ season stay alive and get to behold Cam Schlittler again in Game 4 with a chance to send the series back to Toronto. It’s one step at a time though, so get an early lead in Game 3, hold down the Jays’ offense, and build off the crowd energy to add to the lead, too. Go Yankees.
