4 Yankees to blame for putting New York's season on life support

The New York Yankees faced a tough task in the ALDS with a matchup against the No.1-seeded Toronto Blue Jays on the docket, but nobody could've predicted this outcome. Losing a series to a really good Blue Jays team is one thing, but the series unfolding as it has so far is another.

The Yankees blew an opportunity to seize control of Game 1 and imploded late, allowing Toronto to take a 1-0 series lead with a 10-1 victory. As if that wasn't wild enough, Game 2 was uncompetitive for much of the day. Yes, the Yankees were able to put some runs on the board late, but they didn't have a single hit in 5.1 innings against Trey Yesavage while the pitching staff imploded. They lost 13-7, and the margin of victory felt wider than it ultimately was.

The Yankees are down 2-0 in this best-of-five series and will need to win three in a row to keep their season alive. New York certainly has the talent to pull it off, but based on what we've seen, it's hard to expect this series to go on for much longer. These players are to blame.

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4. Luke Weaver

Luke Weaver was a Yankees postseason hero in 2024, but it isn't 2024 anymore. He had an underwhelming regular season and a miserable showing in the Wild Card series against Boston. Somehow, things only got worse for him in Game 1 of the ALDS.

He entered a game in which the Yankees were trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, and he promptly allowed all three batters he faced to reach base. All three of those runners scored in what turned out to be a four-run frame.

Struggling is one thing; failing to record a single out in back-to-back appearances is another. Weaver turned a 2-1 game into a 5-1 game. He turned a close game into one that was going to be very difficult for the Yankees to come back in. He deserves a lot of blame for Game 1 ending the way it did.

3. Will Warren

Max Fried did not do his job, and that forced the Yankees to have to rely on Will Warren to not only eat innings, but also try and keep them in Game 2. He did the former, but he did not do the latter.

Warren entered in the bottom of the fourth with two men on and nobody out. He walked George Springer to load the bases, but then struck out Davis Schneider, giving himself a path out of the inning. Instead, the worst-case scenario happened: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. launched a monstrous Grand Slam, turning a 5-0 game into a 9-0 game. To make matters even worse, Daulton Varsho added a two-run homer two batters later, making it 11-0 Toronto. The Jays tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth and the bottom of the sixth, making it 13-1 at one point.

Warren was not put in the best of spots. He, as a starter, is not used to entering in the middle of an inning with ducks on the pond, and to make matters worse, he had never made a postseason appearance in his career.

While that's important to keep in mind, there's no excuse for giving up six runs, including four home runs, in just 4.2 innings of work. He did well to eat innings, but if he were able to limit the damage just bit, perhaps the Yankees would've found a way to steal this game (or at least make it interesting). Their offense did wind up scorig seven runs, for what it's worth.

2. Aaron Judge

Aaron Judge is 4-for-7 with two walks in this series. Given that, it might be strange or unfair to include him on a list of Yankees to blame. With that being said, he isn't the AL MVP favorite because he can get on base at a high level. He's Aaron Judge because he does damage offensively. He has not done that when the Yankees have needed him to this series.

All of Judge's four hits are singles, and he's only driven in one of New York's eight runs across the first two games of the series. When the games have been within reach, too, it feels like Judge has been a non-factor.

What feels like the series-defining at-bat occurred in Game 1, and it didn't go Judge's way. In a two-run game and with the bases loaded and nobody out, he struck out on a 3-2 pitch that was never in the strike zone. It was a very uncharacteristic swing for Judge, and it was the catalyst in what turned out to be a very disappointing inning for New York.

He didn't have a bad showing at the plate in Game 2, but his error in right field was pretty startling for a guy who, normally, is as sure-handed as anyone at that position. The error wasn't too costly in the grand scheme of things, but it's yet another example of a Judge mistake in a high-pressure moment.

Judge getting on base isn't a bad thing, of course, but he has not done damage and instead came up small when the Yankees have needed him most. He'll continue to be known as a postseason choker because of at-bats like that one. A player of Judge's caliber hitting singles just isn't good enough, especially when they aren't coming in the clutch. That's the bottom line.

1. Max Fried

It's never ideal to lose Game 1 of any series, but it didn't feel like the end of the world for the Yankees because they had their ace, Max Fried, looming for Game 2. Fried was coming off 6.1 scoreless innings in the Wild Card series and had pitched well down the stretch this year. Unfortunately, he saved arguably the worst start of his season for the worst possible time.

Fried allowed seven runs on eight hits while failing to record an out in the fourth inning. Yes, two of those runs did come home on the grand slam surrendered by Warren, but it's unlikely Fried would've kept those runs from scoring had he stayed in the game.

It would've been unfair to have expected Fried to go toe-to-toe with Yesavage, who had one of the most dominant postseason starts I've ever seen, but there's a big difference between Fried pitching like an ace and Fried being uncompetitive. He didn't even give the Yankees' offense a chance to wake up before they had to turn to Warren, who put the game out of reach for good.