Yankees delivered satisfying payback after Blue Jays' cowardly Aaron Judge approach

Just because walking Aaron Judge intentionally often produces the optimal outcome while Judge is stuck in a lineup that rarely makes managers pay for avoiding him does not mean it isn't also antithetical to the core values of competition.

Remember when the most fun part of watching sports used to be "my athlete against your athlete, let's see who comes out on top" clashes? Nope. While baseball nerds have made many valuable contributions over the years when it comes to evaluation and predictions (unironic "thanks, nerds"), arguably the worst thing they've done is wake managers up to the realization that, if something's really hard (eg, retiring Judge), you probably shouldn't even try to do it (ironic "thanks, nerds").

We get it. We really do. But if Jayson Tatum opted out of guarding Jalen Brunson, we'd dog him for it. Pitcher after pitcher passes on attacking Judge, and we praise it as probabilistically wise? Please.

Luckily, the Baseball Gods came for Blue Jays manager John Schneider twice on Sunday, and rewarded interim Yankees skipper Brad Ausmus nicely in extra innings in the Bronx.

Schneider avoided Judge like the plague on Sunday afternoon, watching him go 1-for-2 before intentionally walking him thrice. Juan Soto said it best after the game, noting that he respected the Jays "trying to win," but that the strategy also "sucked."

Luckily, it sucked for the correct team when the final whistle sounded. It was you who sucked, John Schneider.

Yankees deliver fatal blow to Blue Jays, go after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. after Aaron Judge intentional walks

While the Jays tiptoed around Judge successfully for the game's first nine innings, thanks in large part to Giancarlo Stanton's extended "return to comfort" window after getting healthy, the Yankees (and Ausmus) shockingly chose to attack Vlad Guerrero Jr. with first base open and no one out in the 10th frame, with the Ghost Runner looming. Given the rest of the Jays lineup's relatively unthreatening nature and the way modern baseball games typically unfold, it felt kind of absurd to watch Mark Leiter Jr. be empowered to attack and retire the Yankees' greatest killer in this particular scenario.

Well, second-greatest killer behind Danny Jansen, but thank goodness he's gone. Where'd he go again? Oh. Sick.

Given the green light to work his magic, Leiter Jr. responded with fortitude, retiring Guerrero Jr. on an easy fly out that did not advance the runner after getting him to swing over a pair of nasty splits. Ultimately, he carved through the inning from there, navigating with aplomb after taking care of the danger himself instead of deferring it.

That led to the coup de grace in the bottom of the 10th. With a runner on third and one out, Schneider pulled a last-ditch five-man infield out of his backside to try to cut down a potential game-winning grounder. Ausmus knew the score here, too, delaying the game while demanding to the umpires that Schneider wasn't allowed to stick the extra infielder directly up the middle (he wasn't). The umpiring crew made Schneider declare a side of the bag, and he picked the wrong one, as DJ LeMahieu shot the game-winning single directly through the hole he chose not to select.

In all, Sunday's walk-off Yankees victory was also a win for old-school competition, despite Schneider executing the modern game's playbook to a tee until the very end. Unfortunately, his gut let him down when he needed it most. Perhaps it was out of practice from disuse.