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.

It was the 2015 ALDS against the Texas Rangers and their first Postseason appearance since 1993. It was a long time coming for the Blue Jays, and they had home-field advantage. Unfortunately, their return to the playoffs did not receive the fanfare they had hoped for.

Game 1 got off to a tough start, with the Rangers jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning. The Blue Jays would chip away at the lead, but it was Rougned Odor who homered off David Price in the seventh to seal a 1-0 series lead for the Rangers.

Game 2 was a neck-and-neck battle between Toronto and Texas. With a 4-4 tie into the 14th inning, Hanser Alberto and Delino DeShields each brought it a run to give Texas a 2-0 series lead.

The series moved to Texas, and what seemed to be the end of the road for the Blue Jays, they began to fight back. Game 3 saw the bats come alive, led by Troy Tulowitzki's three-run homer. Meanwhile, Marco Estrada threw six and a third strong innings en route to a 5-1 win. Game 4 saw an even stronger performance with home runs from Josh Donaldson, Chris Colabello, and Kevin Pillar to help the Blue Jays even the series and send it back to Toronto for a do-or-die Game 5.

Of course, the Blue Jays would ultimately win Game 5 behind Jose Bautista's legendary bat flip and move on to the ALCS. As of 2025, teams that have a 2-0 series lead in a best-of-five are 80-10 and are 60-7 since MLB introduced the divisional series in 1995. The Blue Jays were one of those teams that beat the odds, something that the New York Yankees will probably remind themselves of going into Game 3 of this year's ALDS.

The next set of pitching challenges arrive for Toronto

The Yankees announced that Carlos Rodon will be tasked for Game 3. Rodon has posted an 18-9 record with a 3.09 ERA, 203 strikeouts, and 3.2 fWAR. He's been a reliable starter for New York, with much of his value in high percentiles per Baseball Savant. He's able to get batters swinging, with his Whiff in the 84th percentile.

Rodon has been efficient in two starts against the Blue Jays, despite getting a loss in one game and not going past five innings in both. Rodon gave up a total of 11 hits and limited the damage to just three runs. Guerrero and Kirk each got doubles against Rodon.

Should the Blue Jays want to be successful again against Rodon, they're going to have to continue to make him work for an early hook. Rodon threw 107 and 96 pitches in those games, respectively. Getting to the bullpen in Games 1 and 2 has done wonders for the Blue Jays en route to their high-offensive performance. If that happens, then the possibility of a sweep increases.

If the Blue Jays can't get to Rodon and drop Game 3, then they would have to deal with rookie sensation Cam Schlittler. The young phenom has been on a tear and helped the Yankees advance to the ALDS after pitching eight strong shutout innings with 12 strikeouts against the Boston Red Sox.

Since Schittler's poor performance against the Blue Jays on September 5, he has posted a 2.35 ERA with 28 strikeouts and is building his confidence. It's not the pitcher the Blue Jays want to see in a potential Game 4.

Buckle up, Toronto. It's about to be a rowdy one in the Bronx. Game 3 is scheduled for Tuesday evening, with the first pitch at 8:08 p.m. ET.