Oct 7, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Addison Barger (47) throws out a runner at third base in the eighth inning against the New York Yankees during game three of the ALDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

Playoff Blunder Finally Benefits Yankees

Originally posted on New York Yankees on SI
By Joseph Randazzo | Last updated Oct 8, 2025 2:00 PM ET

The New York Yankees are on the brink of elimination at home. A routine fly ball is dropped. On the call, Joe Davis is stunned. From there, the team that's down big comes soaring back.

This wasn't game five of the 2024 World Series. It was the fourth inning of Game 3 in the division series , and this time, it wasn't the Yankees on the wrong end of a defensive lapse. It was Addison Barger, whose flub opened the door for the Yankees to make the biggest comeback in the organization's history when facing elimination.

Addison Barger doing his best Jarren Duran impression pic.twitter.com/tSTdHYVROm
— Evil Empire (@octoberstanton) October 8, 2025

That fourth inning started easily enough for the Toronto Blue Jays. Anthony Volpe struck out on a 91 MPH cutter well above the strike zone, and Austin Wells' weak fly ball to left field should have been playable for Barger. It lofted off his bat at 86.7 MPH, but the third baseman looked like he lost track of the ball. His attempt to stab at the ball only made matters worse, and Wells was able to get to second as it rolled up the foul line.

From there, Trent Grisham walked. Then came the captain Aaron Judge's fateful homer, which, much like that fly ball Barger couldn't handle, seemed to linger in the air before it finally hit off the foul pole.

Some Statcast on Aaron Judge's HR: It was off a 99.7 mph pitch that was 1.2 feet inside (vs. the center of the zone). It’s the first time in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008), regular season or postseason combined, that a hitter has homered off a 99-plus mph pitch that also was… pic.twitter.com/qZe45cEWAF
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) October 8, 2025

If baseball is the game of inches, that fourth inning was the very definition of that idiomatic expression. Where are the Yankees if Wells' pop fly doesn't have the type of carry it did, or Judge's homer moves a few inches to the left? Chances are, they are sitting at home, packing their bags to meet with old teammate Juan Soto in Cancun.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider called Barger's error the tipping point for his ball club.

"It can turn on you in a hurry," Schneider said, according to Dan Martin of the New York Post. "You've just got to kind of stop any kind of momentum. Walks and errors will kill you against this team. So I think that was kind of the tipping point, a little bit."

Barger's flub wasn't the only apropos blunder for the Jays. In the bottom of the first inning, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the much-maligned former infielder who had also been benched in the 2022 American League Championship series for his inability to play a clean shortstop, misplayed a routine groundball. This allowed the Yankees to get their first run of the game.

Game three will either go down as a footnote if Toronto advances or the beginning of another wild collapse by one of their sports teams.

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