Simply put, the Toronto Blue Jays&#8217; defence &#8212; usually one of their biggest strengths as a team &#8212; let them down in Game 3 of the ALDS, and the New York Yankees&#8217; offence took full advantage of those mistakes. 
It&#8217;s what you&#8217;d expect from a 94-win team, especially in October.
The Blue Jays&#8217; identity is built on executing fundamental baseball. That&#8217;s been the primary focus for a few years now. But, on a night when they had an opportunity to put the Yankees away, leading this series 2-0 and needing one more win to advance to the ALCS, <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/10/08/instant-reaction-toronto-blue-jays-blow-five-run-lead-yankees-series-lead-half/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the little things came back to haunt them in their 9-6 defeat</a>.
More specifically, their defence &#8212; which has been one of the organization&#8217;s calling cards all season.
With former Gold Glove winners littered around the field (Daulton Varsho, Andrés Giménez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Myles Straw, Isiah Kiner-Falefa), <a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&amp;stats=fld&amp;lg=all&amp;qual=y&amp;type=1&amp;season=2025&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2025&amp;ind=0&amp;team=0%2Cts&amp;sortcol=20&amp;sortdir=default&amp;pagenum=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toronto boasted one of the sport&#8217;s top defensive units again</a>, leading the majors in fielding run value (44), along with finishing fourth in defensive runs saved (51) and ninth in outs above average (14) during the regular season.
That production fell off in July, plummeting to a season-worst minus-seven FRV. But the club&#8217;s defenders finished strong down the stretch, earning an MLB-best plus-12 rating in September.
<figure id="attachment_92233" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-92233" style="width: 385px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-92233" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-08-12.15.44-PM.png" alt="" width="385" height="199" srcset="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-08-12.15.44-PM.png 385w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-08-12.15.44-PM-300x155.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 385px) 100vw, 385px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-92233" class="wp-caption-text">Source: <a href="https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/fielding-run-value" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Baseball Savant</a></figcaption></figure>
Facing the Yankees, a middle-of-the-pack-ranked defensive team, meant the Blue Jays should have the edge when it comes to fielding in this ALDS showdown. And they did through the first two games. In Game 3, however, that narrative flipped in the other direction.
Toronto&#8217;s defence supplied not one, two, three, but four free outs to New York&#8217;s offence on Tuesday, with each of those blunders ultimately resulting in runs for their opponent. Considering they jumped out to an early 6-1 lead, who knows how events would&#8217;ve played out had they been able to play their brand of baseball in the field.
<blockquote>&#8220;I just think it was sloppy brand of baseball,” Kiner-Falefa told reporters following Tuesday&#8217;s disappointing Game 3 loss to New York, including <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/blue-jays-must-tighten-up-defence-ahead-of-game-4/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sportsnet&#8217;s Ben Nicholson-Smith</a>. “It just wasn&#8217;t our night tonight. No it was, sloppy. It was sloppy. It is what it is. It wasn&#8217;t great.”</blockquote>
Booting the ball around several times when you have your AL East rival on the ropes is bad enough. However, the timing of the Blue Jays&#8217; defensive misplays didn&#8217;t help, either, particularly Kiner-Falefa&#8217;s first-inning error on Ben Rice&#8217;s hard-hit grounder.
Had Kiner-Falefa made that play, it would&#8217;ve been the final out of the inning. Instead, the Yankees&#8217; first run of the contest came across via Giancarlo Stanton&#8217;s RBI single just one batter later.
Then came Addison Barger&#8217;s fourth-inning, wind-assisted error on Austin Wells&#8217; pop-up. With Mason Fluharty walking the next hitter, that put two runners on base ahead of Aaron Judge&#8217;s three-run bomb off a well-located 99.7 m.p.h. inside fastball from Louis Varland, tying the score at six runs apiece.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
make it matter <a href="https://t.co/CYWIVGOiE8">pic.twitter.com/CYWIVGOiE8</a>
&mdash; Talkin&#39; Yanks (@TalkinYanks) <a href="https://twitter.com/TalkinYanks/status/1975741410524721312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
During the following inning, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. misjudged the hop on a grounder from Wells, who was thrown out at second base to end the fifth, but not before Amed Rosario &#8212; who followed up Jazz Chisholm Jr.&#8217;s solo home run with a double &#8212; crossed home plate to cap off a two-run frame.
Adding to the embarrassing display, Toronto&#8217;s uncharacteristically poor defence provided another avoidable scoring opportunity in the sixth following Anthony Santander&#8217;s failed diving attempt on a routine fly ball. That put Judge and Cody Bellinger in scoring position with one out, allowing New York&#8217;s superstar slugger to score on Rice&#8217;s sac-fly.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
The ball gets past Anthony Santander and the Yankees have runners on 2nd and 3rd! <a href="https://t.co/5ycuq8o2jI">pic.twitter.com/5ycuq8o2jI</a>
&mdash; FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1975754096088088756?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Fortunately, there&#8217;s no time for the Blue Jays to dwell on one of their worst defensive performances of the season. All they can do now is flush it from their minds and prepare for <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/10/08/mlb-betting-preview-oct-8-blue-jays-vs-yankees-game-4-alds-predictions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wednesday&#8217;s Game 4, where they&#8217;ll have another chance to squash the Yankees&#8217; comeback hopes.</a>
Runs may be tough to come by against rookie phenom Cam Schlittler, though, increasing the urgency to clean up these self-inflicted mistakes.

Simply put, the Toronto Blue Jays' defence -- usually one of their biggest strengths as a team -- let them down in Game 3 of the ALDS, and the New York Yankees' offence took full advantage of those mistakes. 

It's what you'd expect from a 94-win team, especially in October.

The Blue Jays' identity is built on executing fundamental baseball. That's been the primary focus for a few years now. But, on a night when they had an opportunity to put the Yankees away, leading this series 2-0 and needing one more win to advance to the ALCS, <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/10/08/instant-reaction-toronto-blue-jays-blow-five-run-lead-yankees-series-lead-half/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the little things came back to haunt them in their 9-6 defeat</a>.

More specifically, their defence -- which has been one of the organization's calling cards all season.

With former Gold Glove winners littered around the field (Daulton Varsho, Andrés Giménez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Myles Straw, Isiah Kiner-Falefa), <a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&amp;stats=fld&amp;lg=all&amp;qual=y&amp;type=1&amp;season=2025&amp;month=0&amp;season1=2025&amp;ind=0&amp;team=0%2Cts&amp;sortcol=20&amp;sortdir=default&amp;pagenum=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toronto boasted one of the sport's top defensive units again</a>, leading the majors in fielding run value (44), along with finishing fourth in defensive runs saved (51) and ninth in outs above average (14) during the regular season.

That production fell off in July, plummeting to a season-worst minus-seven FRV. But the club's defenders finished strong down the stretch, earning an MLB-best plus-12 rating in September.

[caption id="attachment_92233" align="aligncenter" width="385"]<img class="size-full wp-image-92233" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-08-12.15.44-PM.png" alt="" width="385" height="199" /> Source: <a href="https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/fielding-run-value" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Baseball Savant</a>[/caption]

Facing the Yankees, a middle-of-the-pack-ranked defensive team, meant the Blue Jays should have the edge when it comes to fielding in this ALDS showdown. And they did through the first two games. In Game 3, however, that narrative flipped in the other direction.

Toronto's defence supplied not one, two, three, but four free outs to New York's offence on Tuesday, with each of those blunders ultimately resulting in runs for their opponent. Considering they jumped out to an early 6-1 lead, who knows how events would've played out had they been able to play their brand of baseball in the field.
<blockquote>"I just think it was sloppy brand of baseball,” Kiner-Falefa told reporters following Tuesday's disappointing Game 3 loss to New York, including <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/blue-jays-must-tighten-up-defence-ahead-of-game-4/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sportsnet's Ben Nicholson-Smith</a>. “It just wasn't our night tonight. No it was, sloppy. It was sloppy. It is what it is. It wasn't great.”</blockquote>
Booting the ball around several times when you have your AL East rival on the ropes is bad enough. However, the timing of the Blue Jays' defensive misplays didn't help, either, particularly Kiner-Falefa's first-inning error on Ben Rice's hard-hit grounder.

Had Kiner-Falefa made that play, it would've been the final out of the inning. Instead, the Yankees' first run of the contest came across via Giancarlo Stanton's RBI single just one batter later.

Then came Addison Barger's fourth-inning, wind-assisted error on Austin Wells' pop-up. With Mason Fluharty walking the next hitter, that put two runners on base ahead of Aaron Judge's three-run bomb off a well-located 99.7 m.p.h. inside fastball from Louis Varland, tying the score at six runs apiece.

https://twitter.com/TalkinYanks/status/1975741410524721312

During the following inning, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. misjudged the hop on a grounder from Wells, who was thrown out at second base to end the fifth, but not before Amed Rosario -- who followed up Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s solo home run with a double -- crossed home plate to cap off a two-run frame.

Adding to the embarrassing display, Toronto's uncharacteristically poor defence provided another avoidable scoring opportunity in the sixth following Anthony Santander's failed diving attempt on a routine fly ball. That put Judge and Cody Bellinger in scoring position with one out, allowing New York's superstar slugger to score on Rice's sac-fly.

https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1975754096088088756

Fortunately, there's no time for the Blue Jays to dwell on one of their worst defensive performances of the season. All they can do now is flush it from their minds and prepare for <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/10/08/mlb-betting-preview-oct-8-blue-jays-vs-yankees-game-4-alds-predictions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wednesday's Game 4, where they'll have another chance to squash the Yankees' comeback hopes.</a>

Runs may be tough to come by against rookie phenom Cam Schlittler, though, increasing the urgency to clean up these self-inflicted mistakes.

Uncharacteristic defensive misplays came at worse time in Blue Jays’ crushing ALDS loss

Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) reacts after hitting a two-run home run in the first inning against the New York Yankees during game three of the ALDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Yankee Stadium

Recent articles from Thomas Hall

Breaking News