Blue Jays tie Yankees atop AL East despite blowing 8-0 lead
- - - Blue Jays tie Yankees atop AL East despite blowing 8-0 lead
Jack BaerJuly 2, 2025 at 8:59 PM
The road to first place wasn't pretty for the Toronto Blue Jays, but they celebrated nonetheless.
The Blue Jays tied the New York Yankees atop the Al East on Wednesday with one of the more dramatic games of the year. They blew an 8-0 lead before an eighth-inning rally gave them the victory. Both teams now have 48-38 records.
Toronto entered the three-game series vs. the Yankees knowing full well that a sweep would give them sole possession of first place in the division. Step 1 was a runaway 12-5 win on Tuesday. It appeared Step 2 would be even simpler when the Blue Jays hung seven runs on the Yankees in the first inning Wednesday, with home runs from Addison Barger and Davis Schneider.
A rally in the third made it an eight-run lead, but then the Yankees' AL-best offense went to work. They got six runs back in the fifth inning, and then Aaron Judge did this to tie the game and stun the home fans in the top of the eighth:
TIE BALLGAME 🤯The @Yankees come all the way back on Aaron Judge's HUGE BLAST 😤 pic.twitter.com/JCwrQA0iQx
— MLB (@MLB) July 3, 2025
Say this for the Blue Jays: They didn't let blowing an eight-run lead keep them down. They responded quickly in the bottom of the inning, with George Springer walking, stealing second base, taking third on a flyout and scoring on a wild pitch to take back the lead.
Barger then hit an RBI single to make it 11-9.
Find. A. Way. pic.twitter.com/6zI7Y8vvKQ
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 3, 2025
Jeff Hoffman closed it out in the ninth, aided by a jumping catch at the wall from center fielder Myles Straw.
MAKE A PLAY, MYLES https://t.co/u4XxLkXHQNpic.twitter.com/i1Ke9TlHT0
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 3, 2025
The win gives the Blue Jays the chance to take sole possession of the division lead on Thursday, with starting pitcher Chris Bassitt scheduled to face the Yankees' Clarke Schmidt.
Not many people expected the Jays to be competitive in a crowded AL East, and in some ways, they're over-performing. Their plus-6 run differential ranks fourth in the division. They seemed out of contention when a four-game losing streak pushed their record to 16-20 on May 7, but their 31-18 record since then is second-best in MLB.
So much has been made about the Blue Jays and their path forward in recent years. They made very clear that they still believe they can contend with their $500 million Vladimir Guerrero Jr. contract extension, plus the $92.5 million Anthony Santander free-agent deal and the trade that landed Andrés Giménez's $106.5 million deal.
Not everything is paying dividends (Santander is on the IL after hitting .179 in 50 games), but Toronto has enough working in the meantime. We'll soon see if they can do it in the second half as well.
Source: AOL Sports
