All you can do when facing elimination in October is take it one day at a time. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a winner-take-all game, need two to advance, or need three to advance. There’s no point
worrying about how big of a deficit you have to overcome, you just have to put one foot in front of the other and find a way to win today.
It was as bleak as humanly possible on Tuesday night. Down five runs in the third inning, your much-maligned bullpen needing to cover 20 outs to give you a chance, a slumbering offense needing to shoulder the load. All of that with a trickling number of outs until your season ends in an embarrassing sweep. At least for one night, the Yankees focused on today and rode the broad shoulders of Aaron Judge to a memorable, season-saving comeback victory.
Just like he did last week against his childhood team, flamethrowing rookie Cam Schlittler will look to save the Yankees’ season on Wednesday night after one of the greatest performances in recent team history. If it were a different era, Schlittler would have sleepwalked to a complete-game shutout, but he settled for eight dominant innings with 12 strikeouts and no walks in 107 pitches in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. His last three starts, dating back to the regular season? One run allowed in 20.1 innings with 27 strikeouts to just two walks. Outstanding.
Here’s the problem. Not only are the Blue Jays a better offense than the Roman Anthony-less BoSox, but they also are a tough matchup for Schlittler. They strike out less than anyone, they fight off more pitches than anyone, and they mash high velocity more than anyone. While Cam hasn’t been bludgeoned in either of his two starts against Toronto, he’s allowed a combined 17 baserunners in 16.2 innings. In his most recent outing against them, the Blue Jays fouled off 24 of his 66 pitches and chased him after 1.2 torturously long innings.
It’s not as concrete for the Blue Jays, who’ll start electrifying reliever Louis Varland as an opener on Wednesday night. You may remember Varland as the losing pitcher in Game 3 who gave up the game-tying and go-ahead home runs to Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr.
After Varland? We’ll see. Everyone is seemingly available (including Kevin Gausman and Trey Yesavage), but the most likely path involves using Eric Lauer as a bulk reliever. Varland is the only one at risk of being overused (four times in five days), but expect John Schneider to use as many arms as possible to end the series now. The more times you face a reliever in October, the better you do. Tommy Nance, Seranthony Dominguez, Braydon Fisher, and Brendon Little would all be making their third appearances if they appear tonight. Food for thought.
Staring down a lefty opener and lefty bulk reliever, but also plenty of room for right-handed relievers, Aaron Boone will deploy a very balanced lineup. It’s more of the same at the top, but Giancarlo Stanton and Chisholm slide up a spot with Ben Rice benched for Paul Goldschmidt, who’ll bat sixth. Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe, and Ryan McMahon all start again, but the team has a L/R/L/R/L/R/L/R/L thing going.
Toronto will use an almost identical lineup to their Game 1 look against Luis Gil. Nathan Lukes moves back into the two-hole, and Addison Barger will clean up ahead of Alejandro Kirk. Ernie Clement slides down to eighth and bats in front of Andres Gimenez. All told, it’s a very balanced lineup from them as well.
The Yankees came up with some magic last night to force a Game 4. Fingers crossed that they have another trick up their sleeves to ensure that the season keeps going on Friday night in Toronto.
How to Watch:
Location: Yankee Stadium — Bronx, NY
First Pitch: 7:08 p.m. EDT
TV broadcast: FS1 (National)
Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY) | SN590 (TOR) | ESPN Radio (National)
For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.
