2025 Blue Jays continue to overcome the odds, advancing to first ALCS since 2016

Nobody expected this. Even the most optimistic of Toronto Blue Jays fans didn't expect the Blue Jays to have already clinched a spot in the American League Championship Series. Not this Blue Jays club, that was given less than 45% odds to even make it to the playoffs. Not this Blue Jays club that was about to lose it's two biggest stars to free agency and was laden with a roster that had "overpaid veterans" and "unproven youngsters."

Turns out - this Blue Jays team was built to overcome those playoff odds. Those overpaid veterans carried their weight. Those unproven youngsters, showed the world they belonged to hang with the best of the best. And one of the faces of the franchise isn't going anywhere.

The 2025 Toronto Blue Jays are a team that just keeps coming at you and putting together unbelievable, script defying moments that just makes people shake their head and say, "how?"

2025 Blue Jays continue to overcome the odds, advancing to first ALCS since 2016

The 2025 ALDS against the New York Yankees was the perfect encapsulation of exactly how they have done it. A microcosm of everything that has worked for them all year, squished into a four game series over five days.

In Game 1 Toronto needed to set the tone and sent their ace to the mound to make it happen. Kevin Gausman was terrific through 5.2 innings giving up just one run on four hits and three strikeouts, none bigger than getting superstar Aaron Judge to whiff on a nasty outside splitter on a 3-2 count. He left the game with the Blue Jays up 2-1 and just like they've done all season, the bats came to life late, and turned a close game into a laugher as they won the opener 10-1.

The Blue Jays did a lot of damage late in games this year. From innings 7-9 they hit .275/.347/.443 with an OPS of .790. They hit 63 home runs, drove in 255 RBIs and had a .309 BABIP. It's one of the reasons they led the league with 49 come from behind wins because they could rally late. It's also why they are so hard to catch when they have a lead, because they kept piling on runs.

Speaking of piling on runs, the Blue Jays for most of Game 2 looked like they couldn't even stop themselves from scoring. They built up a 12-0 lead through five innings with six of those runs coming off Yankees ace, lefty hurler Max Fried. The Blue Jays made a habit of beating up southpaw starters all year. They hit .282/.351/.462 with an OPS of .813 against them. They hit 51 of their 191 home runs this season off lefty starters in only 40 games.

The Blue Jays scored the fourth most runs in the league this season with 798, an average of 4.9 runs per game and they were 71-4 when they did score five runs or more in 2025. They also had 17 games where they scored double digit runs and in those games they were a perfect 17-0, not including Game 2 against the Yankees.

They also got an unbelievable 5.1 innings out of rookie Trey Yesavage who no-hit the Yankees. If you were told before Game 2 that one pitcher would be throwing a no-hitter into the sixth and the other would be gone by the fourth inning, how many people would have guessed Fried to be the former and Yesavage to be the latter?

Game 3 was a loss, and it felt like a very disheartening one at the time. They had their prized trade deadline acquisition on the mound to start in Shane Bieber. They built up a 6-1 lead through the first few innings. But what the Blue Jays need more than anything to win is sound defense, and they didn't get that in Game 3. Several errors led to the Yankees extending innings and rallying for runs and by the end of it, the Yankees put the Blue Jays away 9-6.

It would have been almost too good to be true for the Blue Jays to sweep the Yankees who finished with the same record in the regular season. Especially with that third game being on the road. The Blue Jays had the second worst road record of the AL playoff teams with a 40-41 record.

But they bounced back, as a team, just like they have done all season. Manager John Schneider and Pitching Coach Pete Walker put together a perfectly executed pitching plan to completely dissect the Yankees lineup. Eight relievers were used from opener Louis Varland to closer Jeff Hoffman. They allowed just six hits, two earned runs and racked up ten strikeouts.

The lineup picked their spots and did their part. From the big guys in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. coming through with another hit to drive in a run, to Nathan Lukes and Myles Straw shooting balls just over the heads of infielders to cash in the guys on base. There was no epic home run in this game. No six run inning to bury the other team.

This was a game where everyone understood their role and did their job. Only three guys struck out before the eighth inning (six in total) while the Blue Jays strung together 12 hits and made the Yankees pitchers have to battle to earn every, single, out in a Game 4, 5-2 win to eliminate their division rivals.

The Blue Jays got to party again, they get to rest a little as well, and then they get to reset and do it all over again as they have home field advantage for their first appearance in an ALCS in nine years.