A new wave of discontent has arrived.
The Yankees have achieved this in different ways over the past 16 years, but the all-too-familiar end result came with a thud 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 accompanied Game 4.
The offense that led the majors in scoring during the regular season went silent at the worst time, with the Yankees mustering just six hits against a parade of relievers in a 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays before a boisterous crowd of 47,823.
A year after making the World Series, the Yankees return home after the ALDS, with the Blue Jays winning the series 3-1 and chasing their own October dreams.
As the playoffs began, Aaron Boone said he felt as good about this team as any he had coached in his eight years at the helm.
And yet, after a 94-win regular season in which they lost the AL East tiebreaker to the Blue Jays, these Yankees finished the same way as each of the last 15 iterations: coming up short.
A night after Judge brought them back from the dead, the Yankees spent Wednesday looking for the big hit — or any hit, really. But aside from a solo home run by Ryan McMahon in the third inning and an RBI single by Judge in the ninth, they couldn’t break the Blue Jays’ bullpen game with 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 wasn’t as dominant as he was in his last outing against the Red Sox in the AL wild-card series, but he still gave the Yankees a chance to win by pitching the seventh inning with a 2-1 deficit.
He generated what should have been a double play late in the inning, but Andrés Gimenez’s grounder yanked Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s glove and sailed to center field, putting runners on the corners.
Nathan Lukes made the Yankees pay, lining a two-run single against Devin Williams that gave the Blue Jays some breathing room at 4-1.
After Chisholm stranded two runners in the bottom of the sixth, Trent Grisham had another chance to bring the Yankees back in the seventh with two on and two out.
But Grisham, who had so many hits during a stellar regular season, capped a tough playoff run (4 of 29) by stepping out into foul territory.
The Blue Jays added an insurance run in the eighth against Camilo Doval, further calming a crowd that was beginning to wake up to 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 to closer Jeff Hoffman.
The Blue Jays’ pesky lineup gave the Yankees pitching staff one more night of frustration in a series full of frustration. He had beaten the Yankees’ starters in the first three games, as Luis Gil, Max Fried and Carlos Rodón combined to last only eight innings while allowing 15 runs.
Schlittler, whose emergence since his debut in July has offered a spark for the present and hope for the future, did what no Gil, Fried or Rodón could do by recording a takedown in the fourth inning. And while he didn’t stop there, the Blue Jays pounced on him early, as they had in each of the first three games of the series.
They dotted the foul lines – but stayed fair – to take the lead in the top of the first, with Yankee killer Vladimir Guerrero Jr. right in the middle. George Springer led off by lining a double down the left field line and one out later, Guerrero singled down the right field line to take a 1-0 lead.
McMahon tied the game in the bottom of the third against left-hander Mason Fluharty, going for 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 has been rewarded for it in a lefty-lefty matchup.
But the Blue Jays took the lead for good in the fifth inning. Ernie Clement, who was quietly a thorn in the Yankees’ side throughout the Series, led off with a single before Gimenez singled up the middle to put runners on the corners. Springer came next and hit a sacrifice fly that put the Blue Jays back up 2-1.
