By MIKE FITZPATRICK AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit a tying homer and drove in four runs during a clutch performance for the ages, and the New York Yankees staved off elimination by rallying from five runs down to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 9-6 on Tuesday night in Game 3 of their AL Division Series.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. launched a go-ahead homer in the fifth inning and the Yankees took advantage of two Toronto errors to avoid a three-game sweep. They scored eight unanswered runs and pulled to 2-1 in the best-of-five series, with Game 4 on Wednesday night in the Bronx.
“We need another one tomorrow,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ll enjoy this for about 10 minutes and get ready for tomorrow.”
Judge went 3 for 4 with an intentional walk and scored three times, also making critical plays with his glove and legs as fans chanted “MVP! MVP!” After struggling at the plate in previous postseasons, he is 7 for 11 in this series (.636) with five RBIs and three walks.
“Tonight was special, but there’s still more work to be done,” the Yankees’ captain said. “Hopefully we have some more cool moments like this the rest of the postseason.”
With the season on the line, New York starter Carlos Rodón gave up six runs and six hits in 2 1/3 innings — but five Yankees relievers bailed him out as they combined for 6 2/3 scoreless innings. Tim Hill got four outs for the win, and David Bednar worked 1 2/3 perfect innings for his second playoff save as New York improved to 3-0 in elimination games this postseason.
It was the Yankees’ largest comeback ever in an elimination game, and tied for its second-biggest in any postseason game.
Toronto hadn’t lost all season when leading by at least four runs.
“Kind of just didn’t play our game, really,” manager John Schneider said. “Their bullpen did a really good job, and we just gave them extra outs.”
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit an early two-run homer and Ernie Clement had four hits for the AL East champion Blue Jays, who squandered a golden opportunity to put away the Yankees as Toronto tries to reach its first American League Championship Series since 2016.
Consecutive doubles by Trent Grisham and Judge to start the third began New York’s comeback from a 6-1 deficit. Later in the inning, Judge stayed in a rundown between third base and home plate long enough to allow Cody Bellinger to reach third. That became important when Bellinger scored on Giancarlo Stanton’s sacrifice fly against Toronto starter Shane Bieber, who lasted 2 2/3 innings.
Stanton also had an RBI single in the first after Blue Jays second baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa committed a fielding error against his former team.
With the Yankees trailing 6-3 in the fourth, third baseman Addison Barger dropped Austin Wells’ wind-blown popup for another costly error with one out. Grisham walked, and right-hander Louis Varland was brought in to face Judge, who turned on an 0-2 fastball clocked at 100 mph off the inside corner and somehow kept it fair, launching a three-run drive that clanged high off the left-field foul pole.
“He made a really good pitch look really bad,” Varland said.
Judge tossed his bat aside and gestured to teammates on the bench as the sellout crowd of 47,399 burst into a frenzy.
“It’s an amazing swing,” Boone said. “That’s shades of Edgar Martínez right there, taking that high-and-tight one and keeping it fair down the line. Manny Ramirez used to do that really well, too. But just a great swing on a pretty nasty pitch, obviously.”
The right fielder then made a diving catch with a runner at second in the fifth, drawing more “MVP” chants.
Chisholm gave the Yankees their first lead of the series with a solo homer off Varland in the bottom half. Amed Rosario doubled and scored on Wells’ two-out single to make it 8-6, and Ben Rice added a sacrifice fly in the sixth that scored Judge after he was intentionally walked with one out and nobody on base.
Call it the ultimate sign of respect. Or perhaps, fear.
Guerrero went full-out Superman while diving across home plate to score on Clement’s single in the third, and Anthony Santander’s two-run single capped a four-run inning that made it 6-1.
Up next
Rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler starts Wednesday night for New York, coming off a dominant performance in a winner-take-all Wild Card Series game against rival Boston last Thursday at Yankee Stadium.
Toronto will go with a bullpen game, using Varland as an opener and potentially left-hander Eric Lauer as the bulk reliever.
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