The Difference Between Winning the Division and Settling for a Wild Card Is Always Fundamentals
Last night was a masterclass in how fundamental baseball is, winning baseball. The difference between top-tier division teams and the wild card hopefuls usually comes down to the basics. The Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays represent the difference in the intelligence quotient. They are smartphones, while the New York Yankees are just landlines. The divide is really that large.
Thinking teams beat you by being proficient on multiple levels, while one-dimensional teams are good at one thing. The Yankees are a one-trick pony that cannot be anything more than they are. The entire 2025 season has clearly demonstrated this, and it is especially noticeable against elite teams. If the Yankees had any desire to win the AL East for a second consecutive year, it was necessary to throw the first punch and sweep the Blue Jays, which would have claimed a first-place tie and given Toronto something to think about for a change. They had the rookie revelation in Cam Schlittler going first.
The first inning ended all pretenses that the Yankees are not in the same league as their rivals. The Blue Jays waited out Schlittler and fouled off a third of his 66 pitches. They made Cam work hard to the tune of 40 pitches in the opening frame and ended his evening after one and two-thirds innings. That set the tone for the game, using an approach aimed at getting to the Yankees' bullpen, the weak part of their hurlers. This inning epitomized what the Jays have done to forge a division lead. “That’s what we’ve done all year,” Toronto starter Kevin Gausman explained, “Honestly, we just grind starters out.”
They even used every edge to get their initial three runs. Bo Bichette lifted a broken bat single to left field, which scored a hustling Vladimir Guerrero Jr. This is where the decision to play Aaron Judge in right field was taken advantage of by Blue Jays manager John Schneider. When Nathan Lukes drove a two-run double with the bases loaded, Schneider had his coaches wave in runners to test the arm of Judge. He did not even try to throw it home. Aaron Boone’s response was to evade rather than answer the question about playing Judge when he was not fit to play the field. “We’re handling it how we handle it, okay?”
The difference between a division crown and a wild card spot looks more imposing, knowing that the Yankees do not know how to make adjustments. They make questionable decisions and become defensive when questioned about them. Their idea of handling it is covering up mistake after mistake. Aaron Judge called off Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a routine flyball, and when Jazz moved away, the ball fell between both of them in the fifth, the infamous inning of last year's World Series gaff. The Yankees are playing like a borderline wild-card team. A season where the difference between the top and bottom playoff teams is no more than five games, one wonders if the Yankees will settle again for mediocrity in fundamentals.
