By MIKE FITZPATRICK AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — After taking down the storied New York Yankees in their own ballpark, Toronto manager John Schneider was ready to revel in the triumph.
“Start spreading the news!” Schneider exclaimed while popping a bottle of bubbly to set off the Blue Jays’ jubilant celebration inside their Yankee Stadium clubhouse Wednesday night.
With the party underway, those familiar lyrics from Frank Sinatra’s version of “New York, New York” — the Yankees’ longtime victory anthem — sounded in the background as roaring Toronto players sprayed each other with booze in the Bronx.
This time, it was their time.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer each drove in a run, and eight Toronto pitchers shut down the Yankees in a 5-2 victory that sent the Blue Jays to the American League Championship Series for the first time in nine years.
“Kind of fitting that it took everyone to win today,” said Schneider, his hair and T-shirt soaked.
Nathan Lukes provided a two-run single and Addison Barger had three of Toronto’s 12 hits as the pesky Blue Jays, fouling off tough pitches and consistently putting the ball in play, bounced right back after blowing a five-run lead in Tuesday night’s loss.
AL East champion Toronto, wearing its lucky caps with the white panels, took the best-of-five Division Series 3-1 and will host Game 1 in the best-of-seven ALCS on Sunday against the Detroit Tigers or Seattle Mariners.
Those teams are set to decide their playoff series Friday in Game 5 at Seattle.
“It feels great,” Guerrero said through a translator. “Everybody was just together since the first day. You could tell that something special was there.”
Guerrero was something special himself. The $500 million slugger batted .529 with three homers and nine RBIs in the ALDS, tormenting the Yankees in October in the mold of David Ortiz, Ken Griffey Jr. and George Brett decades ago.
Jeff Hoffman retired Austin Wells with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning and got four outs for his first postseason save, advancing the worst-to-first Blue Jays to their eighth AL Championship Series.
Toronto’s only pennants came in 1992 and ’93, when the club won consecutive World Series crowns. A season ago, the Blue Jays finished last in the AL East at 74-88.
“Maybe some people don’t believe in the team through the year, but I always remind everyone that we have an entire country behind us that believe in us, and hopefully we can get the World Series back to Canada,” Guerrero said.
Ryan McMahon homered and Aaron Judge had an RBI single for the wild-card Yankees, unable to stave off elimination for a fourth time this postseason as they failed to repeat as AL champions.
Despite a terrific playoff performance from Judge following his previous October troubles, the 33-year-old superstar and team captain remains without a World Series ring. New York is still chasing its 28th title and first since 2009.
“We got beat here. Credit to the Blue Jays,” manager Aaron Boone said. “They took it to us this series.”
New York tied Toronto for the AL’s best regular-season record at 94-68 but lost a head-to-head tiebreaker for the division title. In the end, the Yankees never could get past the Blue Jays — going 1-8 in Toronto this year and losing 11 of 17 meetings overall.
Judge extended New York’s season one last time with an RBI single off the left-field wall with two outs in the ninth. Hoffman then struck out Cody Bellinger, and happy Blue Jays players poured out of the dugout to bounce in unison near the mound.
About 25 minutes later, a group of Toronto fans was still chanting “Let’s go Blue Jays!” behind the third-base dugout.
“I think we more than showed what we can do in this series between all that pitching, defense, everything,” Schneider said. “The guys in here know what we’re capable of and we don’t really care what anyone else thinks.”
Lukes made it 4-1 with a two-run single off Devin Williams after an error by Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. cost rookie starter Cam Schlittler a chance to get through the seventh with an inning-ending double play.
“Just missed it,” Chisholm said. “Been thinking about that since the play happened, still thinking about it now. Still can’t get it out of my head.”
Myles Straw, who came in off the bench for outfield defense, added an RBI single in the eighth after Alejandro Kirk’s leadoff double.
With the score tied 1-all, Ernie Clement singled leading off the Toronto fifth and went to third when No. 9 batter Andrés Giménez bounced a single through the middle. Clement, who had nine hits in the series, scored on Springer’s sacrifice fly.
Toronto left veteran right-handed starters Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt off the ALDS roster, choosing instead to carry four left-handed relievers against the Bronx Bombers as the Blue Jays pointed toward a bullpen parade in Game 4 if the series went that far.
Turned out to be a winning decision.
Toronto opener Louis Varland, who gave up game-changing homers Tuesday to Judge and Chisholm in relief, became the first pitcher in major league history to lose a postseason game and start the next day.
Varland worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, and seven relievers followed as Schneider mixed and matched with planning help from his coaching staff. No pitcher got more than five outs — but all of them were effective.
Seranthony Domínguez tossed 1 2/3 hitless innings for the win.
On the other side, Schlittler was coming off one of the most dominant pitching performances in playoff annals, when he beat rival Boston 4-0 in the winner-take-all Game 3 of their Wild Card Series last Thursday at Yankee Stadium.
This time, he was charged with four runs — two earned — and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. The right-hander joined Dakota Hudson (2019 for St. Louis) as the only rookies in big league history to make their first two postseason starts in potential elimination games.
Up next
Toronto went 4-3 against Detroit this season and 4-2 versus Seattle. Veteran right-hander Kevin Gausman and rookie Trey Yesavage, the Blue Jays’ top two starters in the ALDS, will be fully rested for the first two games of the ALCS.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB