Another fall of discontent has arrived.
The Yankees have gotten there in many different ways over the past 16 years, but the all-too-familiar end result came crashing in with a thud on Wednesday night in The Bronx.
A thrilling comeback in Game 3 of the ALDS the night before had offered a temporary reprieve, when Aaron Judge delivered in the clutch, but it only delayed the crushing disappointment that came with Game 4.
The offense that led the majors in scoring during the regular season went silent at the worst time, the Yankees mustering just six hits against a parade of relievers in a 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays in front of a restless sellout crowd of 47,823.
A year after going to the World Series, the Yankees are going home after the ALDS, with the Blue Jays winning the series 3-1 and moving on to chase their own October dreams.
At the beginning of the postseason, Aaron Boone said that he felt as good about this team as any he had managed in his eight years at the helm.
And yet, after a 94-win regular season in which they lost the AL East on a tiebreaker to the Blue Jays, these Yankees ended the same as each of the last 15 iterations: coming up short.
A night after Judge brought them back from the dead, the Yankees spent Wednesday searching for the big hit – or any hits, really. But aside from a solo home run from Ryan McMahon in the third inning, and an RBI single from Judge in the ninth, they could not crack the Blue Jays’ bullpen game featuring eight relievers.
The Yankees stranded eight runners over the final four innings, only adding to the pain as they watched the game and their season slip through their fingers in slow motion.
Cam Schlittler was not as dominant as his last time out against the Red Sox in the AL wild-card series, but he still gave the Yankees a chance to win by pitching into the seventh inning with a 2-1 deficit.
He generated what should have been an inning-ending double play, but Andrés Gimenez’s grounder shot off Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s glove and sailed into center field, putting runners on the corners.
Nathan Lukes made the Yankees pay, lining a two-run single off Devin Williams that gave the Blue Jays some breathing room at 4-1.
After Chisholm had stranded a pair of runners in the bottom of the sixth, Trent Grisham had another chance to get the Yankees back in it in the seventh with two on and two out.
But Grisham, who had so many clutch hits during a breakout regular season, capped off a rough postseason (4-for-29) by popping out in foul territory.
The Blue Jays added an insurance run in the eighth off Camilo Doval, further quieting a crowd that was starting to come to grips with reality.
The Yankees offered one last gasp in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases with two outs, only for Austin Wells to fly out against closer Jeff Hoffman.
The pesky Blue Jays lineup gave the Yankees pitching staff one more night of frustration in a series full of it. It had beat up on the Yankees’ starters in the first three games, as Luis Gil, Max Fried and Carlos Rodón combined to last just eight innings while giving up 15 runs.
Schlittler, whose emergence since making his debut in July offered a spark for the present and hope for the future, did what none of Gil, Fried or Rodón could do by recording an out in the fourth inning. And while he did not stop there, the Blue Jays pounced early against him, just as they had in each of the first three games of the series.
They peppered the foul lines – but stayed just fair – to jump ahead in the top of the first, with Yankee killer Vladimir Guerrero Jr. right in the middle of it. George Springer led off by lining a double down the left-field line and one out later, Guerrero shot a single down the right-field line for the 1-0 lead.
McMahon tied the game in the bottom of the third against lefty Mason Fluharty, working a full count before drilling a sweeper into the short porch to make it 1-1. Beyond his top-notch defense, McMahon has consistently delivered some of the Yankees’ best at-bats this postseason and was rewarded for it in a left-on-left matchup.
But the Blue Jays went ahead for good in the fifth inning. Ernie Clement, who quietly was a thorn in the Yankees’ side throughout the series, led off with a single before Gimenez grounded another single up the middle to put runners on the corners. Springer came up next and hit a sacrifice fly that put the Blue Jays back on top 2-1.
