By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The Bellinger babies are among the few Yankees fans not stressed about New York’s 0-2 deficit to Toronto in their AL Division Series.
Caiden is 3 years old and sister Cy is 2.
“They were at the game yesterday, and they said that it was very loud,” dad Cody recalled Monday. “That’s about all they were aware of.”
New York was blown out twice in Toronto, 10-1 and 13-7, as the Blue Jays scored the most runs of any team in its first two postseason games.
Teams taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five postseason series have won 80 of 90 times, including 54 sweeps. New York has accomplished the comeback twice, in 2001 led by Derek Jeter and his backhand flip to the plate in Game 3 against Oakland, and in 2016 vs. Cleveland. Among teams ahead 2-0 in the current 2-2-1 format, 31 of 34 have advanced.
“We approach it like we have really all season, but even more specifically, the last six, eight weeks where we feel like we’ve been playing with a lot on the line every single day,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ll go into our hitters’ meeting, and it’s about win today, period, and not getting ahead of that and even keeping it smaller than that. It’s about going up and trying to win every pitch. Keep it small. Keep it simple.”
Left-hander Carlos Rodón (18-9) starts for the Yankees and 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber for the Blue Jays. Rodón allowed three runs over six-plus innings for a no-decision in a Game 2 Wild Card Series win over Boston last week, wasting 2-0 and 3-2 leads. He was removed after throwing eight straight balls starting the seventh.
While Rodón was 10th in the AL with 203 strikeouts, Blue Jays batters whiffed 1,099 times, just three above the major league-low total of Kansas City.
“They force action. They put the ball in play,” Rodón said. “There’s times where you need a strikeout, and just the miss isn’t there.”
Bieber returned Aug. 22 following Tommy John surgery in April 2024 and the 30-year-old right-hander went 4-2 with a 3.57 ERA in seven starts, the last on Sept. 26. In the limited sample size, right-handers hit .297 against him and lefties .156.
He pitched a postseason game at Yankee Stadium once before, a no-decision for Cleveland in the 2022 AL Division Series when he allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings, on Giancarlo Stanton’s two-run, first-inning homer into the right-field short porch.
“It’s a fun place, a fun environment, if you embrace it,” Bieber said. “Thankfully I’ve had that experience prior to Tuesday. I think it’s all about just keeping perspective. What an incredible opportunity it is for me personally and then this team, as well.”
Seeking to reach the AL Championship Series for the first time since 2016, Toronto will be wearing white-panel caps, a style used regularly from the team’s inception in 1977 through 1993, when the Blue Jays won their second straight World Series title. The retro model had been used occasionally with the modern bird logo since 2015, including during a Major League Baseball Hall of Fame weekend promotion from July 25-27, when the Blue Jays took two of three at Detroit during a four-game series.
At the suggestion of reliever Jeff Hoffman, the Blue Jays switched to the retro caps on Sept. 25 after losing six of seven and dropping into a tie with the Yankees for the AL East lead. Toronto beat Boston 6-1 with the white-bill caps and has worn them every game since, except for a Friday contest with Nike Connect uniforms. The Blue Jays are 5-0 in the retro caps since the switch.
“I didn’t pack another hat,” manager John Schneider said.
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