00:00Joel Sherman back with 3-Up early here on Wednesday morning of what will be a game for the Yankees and the Blue Jays.
00:10There'll be a game for because game 3 was the Aaron Judge game.
00:13We had done this yesterday.
00:16I didn't see how the Yankees could mount a 3-game winning streak, which is what they would need to advance,
00:23unless Aaron Judge was great and put the Yankees on his shoulders.
00:28And he did that, and what will be remembered is the 3-run homer, and it should be remembered.
00:35It is not a pitch that maybe 10 people in the history of the game, 100, a foot off the plate inside, 0-2 count, under that pressure, waist high,
00:49that somebody could hit 375 feet and keep fair.
00:54And Judge did that. It struck the foul pole. It was a 3-run homer.
00:59It got the Yankees all the way back.
01:01They were down 6-1. That tied it 6-6 in the third inning.
01:08I'm sorry, in the fourth inning. I got my scorecard here to kind of get through this.
01:14But I want to talk about the whole game because I think it could get lost.
01:17There's certainly going to be a lot on that homer, but just let's go through Judge's game here.
01:22He singles in the first. His double in the third, after they're down 6-1, it gets them to 6-2.
01:30And that begins the belief process, right, that they're going to get there.
01:33Then Ben Rice hits a ground ball with first and third.
01:37Guerrero comes home.
01:39Judge stays in a rundown long enough for Cody Bellinger, who's on first, to get all the way to third.
01:44Third, vital, vital play.
01:47He's on third with one out.
01:49So when Stanton hits a long fly ball, it's a sacrifice fly in a 6-3 game.
01:53And Judge's homer eventually gets it to 6-6.
01:56So let's not forget that part of the game.
02:00Base running, defense.
02:03He made a couple of terrific plays in this game.
02:06None bigger, fifth inning, runner on second, Ernie Clement, line drive by Santander.
02:13A sprawling catch to go ahead and save a run there.
02:20Terrific play by him.
02:22And then just the fear he produces.
02:25John Schneider walked him seven times as the Blue Jay manager this season.
02:29This was an eighth time on Tuesday night.
02:32He's intentionally walked and scores an insurance run on a Ben Rice sacrifice fly eventually for the Yankees' ninth run.
02:44It was an overall game.
02:46Offense, defense, base running, fear of who he is getting intentionally walked again.
02:52This was a tour de force.
02:54Judge had had nothing that looked like this in 63 previous postseason games.
02:59He had never had a hit as big as the three-run homer.
03:03Is he unleashed?
03:06Number two for three things.
03:08Let's talk about the bullpen.
03:09The bullpen was brilliant after Carlos Rodon was not.
03:14Rodon only gave him two and a third.
03:15Bullpen gives him six and two-third shutout innings.
03:19I'll tell you two things that stand out for me.
03:22Cruz, Duvall, Williams, and Bednar are all trades since the end of last season.
03:26I know when the Yankees get eliminated, it will be fired Boone, fired Cashman.
03:31Those were four pretty good trades by the front office.
03:34The one that, you know, like Devin Williams didn't pitch well most of this season.
03:38The Brewers wouldn't reverse it.
03:39They're thrilled to have Caleb Durbin.
03:41But the Yankees ultimately saw Williams as part of a potentially championship bullpen.
03:47And if this is who he's going to be, the guy he's been for the last month, they've got a shot at that.
03:55And yet the most important relief pitcher in this game was a guy, again, let's consider the Yankees as an organism that does a great job at certain things.
04:05Tim Hill had not been a very successful relief pitcher with the White Sox.
04:09He comes to the Yankees.
04:11He was really good on the AL Champions last year.
04:14Not quite as good this year, but they brought him back.
04:17He wasn't quite as good, but you know he's fearless.
04:20And to me, the key relief outing of the game is Hill.
04:24Boone mentioned it after the game.
04:25I was sitting next to some of my colleagues and pointing out just how vital what he does is.
04:32So in the fifth inning, he comes on with a runner on second and two outs, and he strikes out Addison Barger.
04:39So he gets out of that situation in that time as a tie game.
04:43In the bottom of the inning, Jazz Chisholm, Homers, Austin Wells, RBI single.
04:48The Yankees go up 8-6.
04:49So you know what Boone is doing the next inning is he's great with Hill going after Jimenez, Andres Jimenez, the ninth hitter and a lefty hitter.
04:57Left on left, he's good.
04:59And then he's playing one batter at a time because it goes back to the top of the order.
05:03Springer, Schneider, and Guerrero.
05:05And so if Springer or Schneider get on, he's not going to let Hill finish the inning left on right on Guerrero, who's been dominating this series and would come up as the tying run.
05:15So he's, hey, if he gets out Springer, he does, ground or the short, I'll leave him in for Schneider.
05:21He gets that guy out, fly ball.
05:23Why is that important?
05:25I'm sure Boone wants to stay away from Luke Weaver right now in an elimination game in that situation.
05:31And if he doesn't get that out, they're going to go to Devin Williams there.
05:35And I'm not sure they could get to the finish line with 10 outs and three plus innings to cover.
05:42So four up-downs with just Williams and Bednar.
05:46I'm sure he would have tried.
05:47But that would have been much more difficult.
05:50But with Hill finishing the sixth inning, it allows him to go Williams for an inning and a third, and then a very efficient Bednar for an inning and two-thirds, perfect to finish out a 9-6 win.
06:04And no one was overextended because the Yankees, to win this, they've got to win three elimination games.
06:11One is now back-to-back tonight, no rest.
06:14And every one of those relievers who was in the game, I expect, will be in the game tonight if needed.
06:20So why don't we go to number three?
06:22Hey, it's another moment for Cam Schlittler.
06:25Toronto, he's had two starts against them, one pretty good, one not good.
06:30In the one not good, he didn't even last two innings, and the Blue Jays blue-Jayed him.
06:34They fouled off 15 two-strike pitches in less than two innings.
06:38This is kind of who they are.
06:40They make life miserable for pitchers.
06:42They put the ball in play.
06:45Can Schlittler be the Schlittler he was against the Red Sox, which is, can he dominate in the strike zone and deal with the ramifications of that, which is strikeouts or the ball is in play?
06:59He's going to have to try to stay away from, it's hard, right?
07:02Like, stay away from foul balls.
07:04But there's a little bit of, get the ball in play.
07:08The Yankee defense wasn't very good last night.
07:10There were two big mistakes.
07:13But the Blue Jays defense, which is better in almost every way than the Yankees, was worse.
07:18Like, the Red Sox defense was worse.
07:20And the Yankees defense has generally been good for about a month and a half, two months now.
07:24So, Schlittler has to trust that.
07:27The Yankees have gotten very little to nothing, to negative, from Luis Hill, Max Fried, and Carlos Rodon.
07:34They need their rookie to help get them to Toronto.
07:37But it started with Aaron Judge getting them to Cam Schlittler.
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