Blue Jays' bullpen shuts down Yankees, seals ALDS in Game 4

NEW YORK -- Jeff Hoffman finished off a four-out save as the Toronto Blue Jays used eight pitchers in a bullpen game and beat the New York Yankees 5-2 on Wednesday night to win their American League Division Series three games to one.

Toronto advances to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2016, when it lost in five games to Cleveland. The Blue Jays will host the Seattle Mariners or the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.

The Blue Jays outscored the Yankees 34-19 in the first postseason meeting between the AL East rivals. Toronto won 11 of the teams' 17 meetings this year, including an 8-5 mark in the regular season to get home-field advantage in the playoffs after the teams were tied atop the AL East with 94 wins.

Hoffman entered after Braydon Fisher allowed a two-out hit by Giancarlo Stanton and then walked Jazz Chisholm Jr. The Toronto closer walked pinch hitter Ben Rice to load the bases but needed only one pitch to retire Austin Wells on a flyout to left.

Hoffman allowed a two-strike RBI single to Aaron Judge in the ninth but ended it by fanning Cody Bellinger on a splitter.

Toronto's George Springer lifted a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the fifth inning. Springer scored on a single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the opening inning off New York rookie Cam Schlittler (1-1).

Nathan Lukes added a two-run single off Yankees reliever Devin Williams in the seventh following a fielding error by Chisholm at second base.

Myles Straw added an RBI single in the eighth for Toronto, which out-hit New York 12-6.

Ryan McMahon homered in the third inning for the Yankees, who fell behind in each game. New York lost in the Division Series for the third time since manager Aaron Boone took over in 2018.

Louis Varland, who allowed Judge's tying three-run homer on Tuesday, started the game and allowed a single to the slugger in 1 1/3 scoreless innings. The third Blue Jays pitcher, Seranthony Dominguez (1-0), tossed 1 2/3 scoreless frames.

Schlittler allowed four runs (two earned) on eight hits and no walks in 6 1/3 innings. After striking out 12 in Game 3 of the wild-card series against the Boston Red Sox last week, the right-hander only got two strikeouts.

--Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media