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Max Fried has made two starts for the Yankees this postseason and they both couldn't have gone more different.

After 6.1 scoreless innings against the Red Sox in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, the left-hander returned for Game 2 of the ALDS against the Blue Jays and allowed seven earned runs in 3.0+ innings.

The poor performance put New York in a tough spot, both in the game and also the series as they return to Yankee Stadium on the verge of elimination.

"They obviously had a really good approach," Fried said. "They were on a lot of my pitches and credit to them. I didn’t get it done and it’s frustrating, especially coming out in a game like this and needed to have a good one."

Following the embarrassing Game 1 loss on Saturday, New York and Fried were hoping to get some revenge on Sunday. However, it was just more of the same with Toronto scoring 13 runs on 15 hits a day after it put up 10 runs on 14 hits.

As for the Yankees' offense, it couldn't figure out Blue Jays rookie starter Trey Yesavage who blanked New York over 5.1 hitless innings while striking out 11. It was only after Yesavage left the game when the Yanks were able to score, pushing across seven runs in the sixth and seventh innings. 

Of course, the late burst of offense wasn't enough with the damage already done, but it was a good sign after New York managed to score just once on Saturday.

"Yeah it was tough," said Aaron Judge about Yesavage. "First time seeing him. He was making his pitches, kinda keeping us in between a little bit there all night. We kinda got it going there late, but at that point it’s a little too late. We saw him now, take it back home and we’ve been playing with our backs against the wall all year long so it’s nothing new for us."

The Yankees will now need to win three in a row to advance to the ALCS. That daunting task will start on Tuesday with Carlos Rodón on the hill.

As for Fried, the team will still need to rely on him if it does end up pushing the series to a Game 5. If that's the case, Fried, who has been New York's ace all season, will be ready.

"We’re a good team," Fried said. "Two games doesn’t mean anything. We still have the ability to go out there and win three in a row and win the series so we still gotta believe."

Manager Aaron Boone is also optimistic about his team's chances despite facing elimination. 

"Baseball’s a funny game," he said. "I know we’ll show up and be ready to go expecting to win Tuesday night. Obviously feels like the world is caving in around you and you lose two games like that in their building where it doesn’t go right, but all of a sudden you go out there and win a ballgame on Tuesday, the needle can change. 

"There’s been a lot of weird things that have happened in baseball this year, this would not be the weirdest, us rallying.

To the Yankees credit, they staved off elimination twice in the Wild Card Series against Boston after losing Game 1 (and wasting Fried's gem). Now they'll have to do it three more times against another division rival who has had their number this year (9-5; 7-1 at home).

The good news? New York went 4-2 against Toronto at Yankee Stadium this season and has historically played well against the Blue Jays at home.

"We got experience," Judge said. "We got guys in here who’ve been to the World Series, in some tough moments, backs up against the wall, especially all season long so we just gotta show up and do our thing."

"We’re ready to go," Fried said. "Obviously had a rough showing here and obviously we’d rather be up 2-0 than down 2-0, but we have a lot of faith in this club and if there’s anyone who can win three in a row, we did down the stretch and we believe in each other here."

TORONTO -- J.C. Escarra was the only Yankee who had seen it. He was the only one who knew how difficult it was to face that split-fingered pitch from the highest release point in baseball.

On Aug. 21, playing for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, Escarra faced the Buffalo Bisons’ Trey Yesavage and struck out twice. None of his teammates had faced Yesavage, who made his MLB debut on Sept. 15. Escarra spoke in the Yankees’ hitters meeting prior to Yesavage’s Game 2 gem.

“I just let the team know what I saw,” Escarra told SNY after the 13-7 loss to the Blue Jays that put the Yanks in an 0-2 series hole. “I think with him, you take out the arm angle [and] it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, you know? But you throw in the height [6-foot-4] and the angle that he throws from, that is what gives the deception that plays off the splitter.

“As guys get more comfortable against that arm angle, I think we’ll do better.”

We bring this up not to review Game 2 but to light a path for the Yankees to take this series. In order to win, they’ll have to once again deal with Yesavage and Game 1 winner Kevin Gausman. In those losses, the team picked up a few insights on how to be more successful next time.

Carlos Rodon must beat the Jays on Tuesday in New York to extend the season. Cam Schlittler needs to do the same on Wednesday. Let’s cut right to the potential game that will be necessary for the Yanks’ season to progress past this week.

In Game 5 in Toronto on Friday, Max Fried would likely face some combination of a rested Gausman and Yesavage (Gausman would be on regular rest on Thursday, an off day; Yesavage would on Friday).

If facing Gausman as a starter, the Yankees’ adjustment will be straightforward. They should swap Ben Rice at first base for Paul Goldschmidt. Manager Aaron Boone started Rice in Game 1 because Rice earned it by becoming an elite MLB hitter this year. But Rice struggled against Gausman’s splitter, a tough pitch for a left-handed hitter.

Goldschmidt is 10-for-22 lifetime against Gausman, with a .636 slugging percentage. And as one scout put it, “Goldy is good against soft” -- like the splitter.

The solution for Yesavage -- like Escarra suggested -- is experience. Not only was he facing the Yankees for the first time on Saturday, but the team’s hitters were uniquely unable to prepare for him.

The Yanks are one of many teams to use a Trajekt Arc pitching machine, which uses artificial intelligence tools to mimic the pitches and mechanics of opponents. This is particularly useful against unfamiliar pitchers -- and particularly used against an uncommonly high release point.

The Yankees clinched the Wild Card Series against Boston late on Thursday, then flew to Boston for a workout day on Friday. The Trajekt is too big to travel, and home teams do not make their machines available to visitors. There was no time to practice against the Trajekt version of Yesavage.

When I noted this on Twitter during the game, the reporter Ben Nicholson-Smith of SportsNet in Toronto noted in a quote tweet that “this was part of the reason why it made sense for the Blue Jays to start Yesavage at home, and start the more experienced Shane Bieber @ NYY.”

Kyle Boddy, the founder of the influential Driveline Baseball pitching company, added, “This sounds like an excuse given the box score, but it’s a very real training tool for the best organizations. Still, Trajekt can’t perfectly mimic extreme release points - possibly including Yesavage (ex: has real trouble with Chris Sale).”

As one Yankee put it after the game, “Trajekt is objectively helpful, period.”

The Yankees were not looking to make excuses or cite the lack of Trajekt as the reason for their loss. This was my thought, not theirs. But it does speak to their chances of faring better against Yesavage on Friday, if they earn the chance.

As the Yankees’ postgame clubhouse was about to close on Sunday, I asked Giancarlo Stanton if the hitters would be more prepared for a second shot at Yesavage in particular because of the unique arm angle.

“Yes,” Stanton said without hesitation.

Then he offered a light admonishment of my premise. “That would be looking ahead,” Stanton said. “We’ve still got to win Tuesday first and get there.”

He was right, of course. But the road to the ALCS likely now goes through Gausman and Yesavage again.

Carlos Rodón says he’s enjoyed the heightened atmosphere October brings to the Bronx, how the fans are louder and the stakes so supercharged. “It’s a treat to be able to step on the mound in Yankee Stadium in the playoffs,” Rodón noted on Sunday.

He’ll be at his happy place on Tuesday, when he starts Game 3 of the ALDS against the Blue Jays and Shane Bieber. But Rodón will have to cope with more than just the enjoyable parts of pitching there in October, since this best-of-five series has gone dangerously haywire for the Yankees. 

With the Bombers down 0-2 and facing elimination, Rodón faces tremendous pressure to save the season. Or at least help extend it and give the Yanks more life. Can Rodón be the stopper that Max Fried wasn’t on Sunday?

We can’t possibly know until he takes the ball. But we do know this – the Yankees brought Rodón here for starts like this, to excel in big spots. He didn’t get a six-year, $162 million contract to be a mid-rotation piece who just sucks up innings. He needs signature starts, outings that fans will remember and, perhaps, even cite as an example for future Yankee teams pushed to the brink. 

After by far his best season as a Yankee, there’s plenty of evidence that Rodón can seize this moment. He was 18-9 with a 3.09 ERA in 33 starts, finishing second in the AL in wins and eighth in ERA. He’s awfully hard to get a hit against – he allowed 6.1 hits per nine innings, the best mark in the American League. Opponents batted .188 against him.

That means it’ll be fascinating to see how he fares against the Blue Jays, who had the most hits in the majors, and excel at putting the ball in play. Toronto had the lowest strikeout percentage in baseball, which means that Rodón might have to seek outs in different ways.

He acknowledged Sunday in the pre-game interview room, “I’ve always chased the strikeout.”

To his credit, though, Rodón also talked about how he’s watched Fried, a fellow lefty, rack up outs via weak contact. It made him weigh the merits of forcing contact to get quick outs, rather than slogging through a longer battle. We’ll see if he can apply that to the Blue Jays on Tuesday. 

“They're tough to strike out,” Rodón said. “They force action. They put the ball in play. They make teams play defense. They're pretty athletic. There's also slug within the lineup.

“And it makes it tough. There's times where you need a strikeout and just the miss isn't there.”

During the season, Rodón had a 3.60 ERA against Toronto, allowing six runs (four earned) in 10 innings. But he walked eight batters, a potential red flag for a start in which a few walks might lead to Yankee doom. 

Another potential reason for limited confidence in him – Rodón’s career postseason ERA is 6.15, including a 5.32 mark as a Yankee. Last year, he was so overamped in his first playoff start against the Royals, he could not get out of the fourth inning, despite starting with three scoreless innings, including a 1-2-3 first with three Ks. He had a terrific start against Cleveland in Game 1 of the ALCS, but was spotty in two outings afterward. 

He said earlier this postseason that he learned from those experiences. He has a 4.50 ERA so far this October, but lasted six innings against the Red Sox, enough to help the Yankees win Game 2. 

Starting pitching was such a huge part of the Yankees victory over Boston in the Wild Card series – the rotation had a 1.33 ERA. But the starters have been a main factor in the Yankees getting clobbered twice in a row in Toronto. Yankee starters have gotten a total of 17 outs (eight by Luis Gil, nine by Fried) in this series. In their combined 5.2 innings of work, they have a 14.29 ERA. 

That alarming trend must change in Game 3. A win could shift the whole feel of this series, especially with the way the Yankees fought back in Game 2, scoring seven runs in a two-inning span after falling way behind. Aaron Judge looked sharp at the plate; Giancarlo Stanton broke out a little, too. Perhaps the lineup is beginning to percolate. And wunderkind Cam Schlittler, who smothered the Red Sox in the last series, is slated to pitch Game 4.

But until the Yanks actually win a game, the series has, for them, a dark cloud hovering close. Elimination is looming and the Jays are 10-5 against the Yanks this year, though the Bombers were 4-2 against Toronto at the Stadium. 

When you sign a big free agent contract to come to New York, you’re expected to crave these moments. You’re expected to deliver, too. 

Rodón’s got a fascinating chance here. A big performance could ink him into Yankee lore alongside some pretty remarkable names. 

Can he seize the moment and save the Yanks, even if just for one more day?

The savages in the box were no match for rookie Trey Yesavage, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. blasted the first grand slam in Toronto history and the Blue Jays hammered the Yankees, 13-7, Sunday in Game 2 of their American League Division Series. 

The Blue Jays, who bullied Yankee starter Max Fried, are in full control of the series and can eliminate the Yankees when the best-of-five affair resumes Tuesday for Game 3 at Yankee Stadium. 

Toronto has outscored the Yankees, who had the best offense in baseball this season, 23-8, so far in the series, though the Yanks made a late charge to make the final deficit Sunday a tad more tidy. Perhaps that gives them some oomph heading into Game 3.

Here are the main takeaways...

-- It was a nightmare outing for Fried, who has been the Yankee ace all season. He had been so good in starts following a Yankee loss – 11-1, 1.82 ERA in 16 such starts – but he was no stopper on Sunday. Fried was charged with seven runs over three-plus innings while giving up eight hits, walking two and striking out one.

He allowed a two-run homer to the Jays’ Ernie Clement. It was a far cry from Fried’s first outing of the postseason – 6.1 scoreless frames against the Red Sox in last week’s playoff opener. Should the Yankees rally to force a Game 5, Fried would get another chance in this series – with two off-days between now and then, Fried could start on regular rest. You know, if. 

-- Guerrero had struggled in his first six games of postseason play in his career, but the Toronto star has changed that narrative in a hurry. He’s on fire in this series. After homering and going 3-for-4 in the opening game, he smashed the first grand slam in Jays' postseason history Sunday. His blast, measured at 111 mph off the bat, traveled 415 feet to left field and upped the Jays’ absurd lead to 9-0. Guerrero victimized Will Warren on the blast, crushing a 95.8-mph fastball. 

-- Daulton Varsho had a huge day for the Blue Jays, too. He doubled twice off Fried and homered twice off Warren. He might have been on cycle watch early in the game save for a scorer’s call on his first double. He ripped the ball down the right-field line, a sure extra-base hit, and the ball caromed off the side wall and Aaron Judge missed it. Varsho got to third because of that and he was credited with a double, advancing to third only because of what was scored an error on Judge. Varsho finished 4-for-5 with four RBI and four runs scored.

-- Yesavage, who turned 22 in July, is a great story. He was drafted in 2024 out of East Carolina and began this season in Single-A before ascending through four different levels of the Toronto system to reach the majors in September. He was just the third pitcher ever to make a postseason start within his first four MLB appearances, including the playoffs. Shane Baz (2021) and Matt Moore (2011), both of the Rays, are the others. 

Jays manager John Schneider said earlier in the series that he decided to have Yesavage pitch at home instead of Shane Bieber. Bieber, a veteran, would be more likely to handle a hostile environment at Yankee Stadium, so he’ll start Game 3 there on Tuesday. 

-- The Yankees were perhaps at an extreme disadvantage in that they had not seen Yesavage before and he has a distinctive arm angle with a high release point over the top. He was 1-0 with a 3.21 ERA in three September starts for the Jays and his plunging splitter is a marvel. It certainly was on Sunday when he used it to great effect – eight of his strikeouts were finished by a diving split. He got 18 swings-and-misses, according to Statcast, 11 of them on splitters. 

-- The Rogers Centre has been the Horror Centre for the Yankees this year. They are 1-8 at the Blue Jays’ nest and played some of their sloppiest baseball of the season there over the summer. But it wasn’t as humiliating as this. And the Yankees were the second-best road team in the majors this season, a fact that was overwhelmed by the Blue Jays being the AL’s top home team, apparently. 

-- The Yankees trailed, 12-0, entering the sixth inning before they finally got their first hit and got on the scoreboard. Judge broke through with an infield single and then Cody Bellinger smacked a two-run homer. Both came off reliever Justin Bruihl. It was the 10th postseason home run of Bellinger’s career. 

-- The Yankees scored five times in the seventh inning to creep closer. With the bases loaded and one out, Judge blooped an RBI single to center. Bellinger hit a ball down the left-field line that could have been big trouble, but Myles Straw made a terrific sliding catch near the side wall. Still, the Yanks got a run on what was a sac fly. Then Ben Rice whacked an RBI double and Giancarlo Stanton, who had been 2-for-18 in the series, hit a two-run single to left, drawing the Yankees within 13-7. 

-- George Springer homered for the Jays in the fifth inning, his 20th career postseason homer. That ties him with Derek Jeter for fifth all-time. 

-- Warren allowed six runs, including four home runs, on seven hits over 4.2 innings of relief. At the very least, he provided some bulk innings to give the Yankee bullpen some rest. Luke Weaver, who had not retired any of the six batters he’d faced so far in the postseason, got the final out of the eighth inning, inducing a flyout to left by Varsho. 

-- Judge (2-for-3) was on base four times for the Yanks, including two walks. He is batting .444 this postseason. 

Game MVP: Trey Yesavage

Yesavage, a righty who threw 5.1 scoreless innings and allowed no hits. He had 11 strikeouts – a Toronto record for a postseason game – and walked only one. Not bad for a guy who started the season in Single-A.

Highlights

The Yankees turn 2️⃣ and Max Fried gets out of trouble! pic.twitter.com/6rJGEktBzz

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

Cody Bellinger hits a two-run shot and the Yankees are on the board pic.twitter.com/eJF66qjkW6

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

Aaron Judge gets an RBI single pic.twitter.com/PcVweRg4H8

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

Ben Rice brings home the third Yankee run of the inning pic.twitter.com/LmMWGFhRqF

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

Giancarlo Stanton makes it 13-7 👀 pic.twitter.com/2XnrPjBvat

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

What's next

The Yankees and Blue Jays head to New York for Game 3 of the ALDS on Tuesday at 8:08 p.m.

Carlos Rodon (18-9, 3.09 ERA) will face Shane Bieber (4-2, 3.57 ERA) in the elimination game.