Blue Jays have historically great start to playoffs, and can't let up now

The Toronto Blue Jays' start to their Postseason run has shocked the baseball world. In what was originally a fairytale matchup between two division rivals who tied and finished the regular season with identical records, the momentum now strictly lies with Toronto.

This was once a Toronto core that struggled handling the bright lights of the postseason and flamed out without a win in 2020, 2022, and 2023. Those years are clearly in the rearview mirror, as the Blue Jays were dominant against the New York Yankees.

Blue Jays have historically great start to playoffs, and can't let up now

Canada's only team is now in the driver's seat with a commanding 2-0 ALDS series lead with the opportunity to sweep the Yankees on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. As impressive as the bats and pitching were, there's still a lot of work to do before any talk about champagne for the ALCS.

Insane numbers that help set the tone

Let's start with a recap of the weekend. The Blue Jays came into the ALDS as slight underdogs, with a +132 odd on Fanduel, and had many experts (like everybody on the CBS Sports panel, for instance) picking the Yankees to win. Talks about the Bronx Bombers and concerns about the Blue Jays' pitching staff grew. In fairness, it was understandable after Toronto struggled to clinch the division title before the final day.

Plus, the Blue Jays weren't an overly powerful-hitting team in 2025. Toronto had 191 home runs in the regular season (13th in the league), a slugging of .427 (7th), and their team exit velocity sat around 89.3 miles per hour. The Yankees were first in all of those categories. Their launch angle to see the ball soar averaged 13.2 degrees, ranking 20th in the league (via Fangraphs).

Instead, the Blue Jays put up historical numbers in the first two games and broke many franchise records. For starters, the Blue Jays have hit the most home runs in a two-game span in the postseason, with eight, surpassing their previous record of six, which was achieved twice in 2016.

Their 23 RBIs were the most in a two-game span in the Wild Card era, along with their batting average of .392, on-base percentage of .420, slugging of .797, and OPS of 1.217. The numbers they've put up haven't been seen since their 2015 and 2016 Postseason runs.

As exciting as those stats are, it's the Blue Jays' own history that should remind this current core of players that a 2-0 series lead means nothing until you get that third and decisive win to move on.