Yankees advance to ALDS, will meet Blue Jays in playoffs for first time

The Jays will face off against the Yankees in the ALDS after they beat the Red Sox 4-0 to take the wild card series. Courtney Heels has the latest.

The New York Yankees will face the Toronto Blue Jays in an American League Division Series after dispatching the archrival Boston Red Sox in a Wild Card Series.

The Yankees took the best-of-three series against the Red Sox 2-1 with a 4-0 win Thursday night in New York.

Rookie Cam Schlittler had 12 strikeouts in eight innings for New York. The Yankees scored all four of their runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, with Amed Rosario, Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells each driving in runs.

The first-ever playoff meeting between the Yankees and Blue Jays opens with games on Saturday and Sunday at 4:08 p.m. ET in Toronto before the series shifts to New York. The winner of the best-of-five series moves on to the AL Championship Series.

The Blue Jays won the regular-season series with the Yankees 8-5, which became crucial when the teams finished tied atop the American League at 94-68.

The Jays claimed the American League East title and home-field advantage until the World Series because of that tiebreaker, while the Yankees had to go through a tough wild-card round against their longtime foes from Boston.

Boston had defeated New York in their last three playoff meetings entering this post-season and took the first game of the Wild Card Series before the Yankees turned it around.

New York is led by superstar and defending American League MVP Aaron Judge, who batted .363 with one RBI in the Wild Card Series. Judge led the majors with a .331 batting average in the regular season to go along with 53 home runs and 114 RBIs.

Toronto’s big bats include shortstop Bo Bichette, who finished tied for second in the major leagues with 181 hits despite playing just 139 games, as well as well as star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and resurgent 36-year-old outfielder and designated hitter George Springer.

Bichette is still considered day-to-day with a left knee sprain that kept him out of the final three weeks of the season.

The Blue Jays won their only World Series titles in 1992 and 1993 and last made the ALCS in 2016.

The Yankees have won the most World Series titles by far at 27, with the last one coming in 2009. They lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in last year’s championship series.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2025.