NEW YORK – The Yankees spent the early portion of Tuesday’s Game 3 of the American League Division Series staring into winter: down by five runs, the crowd restless, another October disappointment seemed to be taking shape in real time. Aaron Judge changed all of that.
Facing Louis Varland in the fourth inning, the Yankees captain secured his signature postseason moment, turning on an inside fastball to crush a towering drive off the left-field foul pole. It was a game-tying, three-run homer, erasing what had once felt like a hopeless deficit.
One inning later, Jazz Chisholm Jr. launched a go-ahead solo blast, making Yankee Stadium shake again as the home team surged back for a stunning 9-6 victory over the Blue Jays. With their season on the line, the Yankees didn’t just fight off elimination: they may have seized momentum.
The outlook looked bleak early. Carlos Rodón was thumped for six runs, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s third homer of the series. Toronto raced around the bases in a four-run third that seemingly broke it open, punctuated by Davis Schneider’s headfirst slide home on a late throw from Chisholm.
Ernie Clement added an RBI single and Anthony Santander ripped a two-run knock as the carousel kept spinning — a familiar sight in this ALDS, where New York had been outscored 23–8 in the first two games north of the border.
But the Yankees didn’t roll over: They chipped away. Judge ripped a run-scoring double and Giancarlo Stanton lifted a sacrifice fly in the third that halved the deficit. When Judge came up again in the fourth, escorted to home plate by hopeful chants of “M-V-P!,” the stakes were clear.
Unlike in Game 1 at Rogers Centre, when he struck out with the bases loaded and none out, Judge delivered. After Austin Wells reached on a dropped pop-up by third baseman Addison Barger and Trent Grisham walked, Varland buzzed a 99.7 mph heater up and in on an 0–2 count — a pitch he surely didn’t expect to leave the park.
Seemingly attempting to steer the ball to stay fair, Judge leaned, watching it hook – suspended in air for what felt like an eternity – before clanging off the pole. Yankee Stadium erupted as Judge rounded the bases, a surge of exultation and relief washing over the crowd.
Judge has been peppering singles against the Red Sox and Blue Jays (with 11 hits, he’s already tallied his most in any postseason), and his first homer of the 2025 postseason couldn’t have come at a better time.
It was hit off a pitch that was 1.2 feet inside (vs. the center of the zone), marking the first time since pitch tracking began in 2008 – regular season or postseason – that a hitter has homered off a 99-plus mph pitch that also was that far inside. It was also the first homer Judge has hit on a pitch outside the zone all season.
Approaching home plate, Judge tapped his helmet, leaped to meet Grisham with a forearm bump, then disappeared into a storm of back-slaps and high-fives in the dugout before pointing at a television camera at the far end.
Serenaded by the fans in right field as he took his position in the top of the fifth, Judge gave the crowd something else to cheer about almost immediately, making a diving catch on a Santander liner.
Ben Rice added a sixth-inning sacrifice fly to support the bullpen, which worked 6 2/3 innings in relief of Rodón to send the ALDS to a Game 4, which will be played Wednesday evening in the Bronx.
