Blue Jays defense is all of the sudden their demise as they lose chance to sweep the Yankees

The Toronto Blue Jays defense had been one of the team’s strongest points for the past few seasons and had been elite once again for the most part during the 2025 MLB season. With a .985 fielding percentage, along with 51 defensive runs saved as a team, ranked fourth in the entire league, it had certainly helped the Blue Jays turn games they could have lost into wins.

Added to the fact that Toronto has five former Gold Glove winners on their roster, they can be hard to beat.

However, that same infallible defense of the Blue Jays managed to beat themselves on Tuesday in the critical Game 3 ALDS matchup against the New York Yankees, as they ended up losing the chance to sweep their arch divisional rivals.

Blue Jays defense is all of the sudden their demise as they lose chance to sweep the series against the Yankees

The bad omen began right at the start in the first inning after the Jays had gone out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to another Vladimir Guerrero Jr. mammoth home run in the top half of the inning. The usually sure-handed Kiner-Falefa would boot the ball extending the frame, leading to a two-out RBI single by Giancarlo Stanton to get the Yankees on the board.

Later on, the more costly play came after Blue Jays manager John Schneider had subbed out Kiner-Falefa for Addison Barger due to a pinch-hitting situation in the third inning.

On a routine shallow fly to left field during the fourth inning, Barger, who came in to play at third, lost track of the ball due to high winds, dropping a sure out that would have kept the bases empty with Trent Grisham due up with two outs. Grisham would end up walking and Aaron Judge would deliver the huge three-run bomb to tie the game in which the Yankees were once trailing 6-1.

That wasn’t it, as in the bottom of the fifth, a ball hit by Yankees catcher Austin Wells in which Guerrero would get nine times out of ten would manage to squeak through for an RBI single to score Amed Rosario for the important insurance run to make it 8-6 for New York.

Then again in the sixth inning, a bad route by Anthony Santander led to what was scored a Cody Bellinger double instead of an out, which eventually produced another run when Ben Rice delivered a sacrifice fly to score Judge to put the game away.

For a Yankees team that was ridiculed earlier in the season for their circus of misplays in the field, the Blue Jays unfortunately got their own fair dose of that this time around. Perhaps it was the nerves and jitters they couldn’t get out of their system, or the fear of playing in the daunting grounds of Yankees stadium.

But in doing so, not only did it give the Yankees extra outs to score extra runs, it ultimately cost Toronto the game as they indirectly led to a whopping six runs for New York. The Yankees already were the top scoring team in MLB for 2025, so they don’t need any help in gifting them with runs that Toronto couldn’t end up overcoming.

The Blue Jays will definitely need to clean up their defense in Game 4, otherwise it's going to be another long night at Yankee Stadium.