The Toronto Blue Jays’ hot bats eventually cooled as the New York Yankees avoided a sweep in the MLB’s American League Divisional Series.
Toronto, which outscored New York 23-8 in the first two games of the series at the Rogers Centre, got out to a 6-1 lead by the end of the top of the third inning.
But then the Yankees would flip the script on Toronto and powered by an Aaron Judge three-run homer, the Yankees kept their World Series hopes alive with the 9-6 win at Yankee Stadium.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. continued his hot streak in the series in the first inning, hitting a two-run homer off of Yankees starter Carlos Rodón. It was the Jays slugger’s third homerun of the series.
Giancarlo Stanton answered in the bottom of the first inning, driving in a run to pull within a single point.
After a scoreless second inning, the Jays pounced on the Yankees in the third. Daulton Varsho and Ernie Clement both drove in single runs, while Anthony Santander drove in two as Rodon exited the game after that.
But after that, the Yankees bats would finally come alive in the series.
Judge’s double in the bottom half of the third drove in a run as Stanton also added another with a sacrifice fly.
That would mark the end of Toronto starter Shane Bieber’s night, who had two strikeouts in the game.
But in the fourth, Judge would show off his power and hit the homerun that tied things at six apiece.
New York proceeded to add two more runs in the fifth and one in the sixth to add to the lead.
Neither team scored the rest of the way as New York bounced back in the playoff series.
Game 4 of the series will go on Wednesday with first pitch scheduled for 5:08 p.m.
If the Jays win, they will reach the ALCS for the first time since 2016.
The Jays won the American League East Division by holding the tiebreaker over the Yankees, both finishing with a 94-68 record.
That gave the Jays the bye to the ALDS while the Yankees needed to stave off elimination twice against the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox won Game 1 of the wildecard series but New York won the next two in the best-of-three series.