The critical Blue Jays mistakes that opened the door for the Yankees’ Game 3 rally

The Yankees have not pulled off one of the most dramatic comebacks in history on their own.

Sure, the bullpen was fantastic, Aaron Judge shrugged off his playoff woes and Jazz Chisholm Jr. caused a huge blow.

But without some terrible defense from the typically solid Blue Jays, the Yankees’ 9-6 win in Game 3 of the ALDS probably wouldn’t have happened.

“We really just didn’t play our game,” Toronto manager John Schneider said of how the Yankees got back into the game. If you look at things as a whole, just defensively, getting extra outs, things like that, and they can do that quickly.”

It started with former Yankee Isiah Kiner-Falefa botching Ben Rice’s hard grounder to second, which would have ended a scoreless bottom of the first inning with Toronto still leading by two runs.

But Kiner-Falefa started the ball and was unable to pick it up in time.

Instead of the inning being over, Giancarlo Stanton followed with a runscoring single to left to make it 2-1.

And then came the fourth inning, when Addison Barger – who pinch hit for Kiner-Falefa in the third and then moved to third base in the bottom of the inning – dropped Austin Wells’ pop-up to shallow left.

Wells moved to second on the two-base error and after Trent Grisham walked, Judge brought the Yankees all the way back from what had been a five-run deficit with a three-run home run off Louis Varland that bounced off the foul pole in left field.

The Blue Jays weren’t done with their mistakes, as Anthony Santander failed to make a diving catch off Cody Bellinger’s liner to right in the sixth.

Judge moved to third base on the play and scored on Rice’s sacrifice fly to right to add an insurance run.

“It happens,” Schneider said of the abuses. “It gets bigger this time of year, of course… but you have to take care of the ball.”

In all, the Blue Jays allowed a pair of unearned runs during the Yankees’ furious comeback and couldn’t survive their mistakes.

“It can turn against you quickly,” Schneider said. “You just have to stop any kind of momentum. Wides and mistakes will kill you against this team. So I think that was a bit of a turning point.”