Yankees get last laugh with Blue Jays' galaxy brain decision, Judge HRs, Cole shutout

The Toronto Blue Jays are at it again. They're choking on their bedtime snack. They're killing their own playoff momentum in a series against an inferior team that's continued to get the best of them for as long as we can remember even though Toronto's fans seem to suggest otherwise.

Though the New York Yankees dropped last week's series in the Bronx to the Jays, they marched into Toronto this week, (yes, Vladdy's house) and took the first two against their division rival. The games mean nothing for New York while Toronto fights to maintain a more favorable seed in the AL Wild Card race.

Mind you, the Yankees took the first game of the series and didn't even have Aaron Judge or Anthony Volpe in the lineup. They were both back starting on Wednesday, and Judge absolutely ruined the Jays on the field and in their brains.

After taking Jose Berrios deep with a rocket line drive for a two-run homer, it appears Blue Jays manager John Schneider suffered a troubling case of Broken Brain. In the top of the fifth with a runner on first and two outs, Berrios fell behind 3-0 in the count to Judge. Schneider essentially took the insurance bet at the Blackjack table and intentionally walked the slugger. He didn't want to see another pitch to the reigning MVP.

Only problem? Berrios had to face Gleyber Torres, who walked to load the bases. Next up was Giancarlo Stanton. Should be a cakewalk, right? He's been terrible. Let's see what happened next.

Yankees get last laugh with Blue Jays' galaxy brain decision, Judge HRs, Cole shutout

Berrios had an 0-1 count on Stanton. He was 1/3 of the way there. Two sliders away should do the trick. Or a high fastball. Take your pick.

But oh no!! He hung one right over the inside part of the plate and Stanton turned on it. His single to left field scored two runs to make it a 4-0 game. Deflating! What a shame! Just like that, the Blue Jays breathed life into one of the most disappointing and underwhelming offenses in all of baseball.

What could be more demoralizing than that? Maybe Aaron Judge planting his flag in the middle of the Rogers Centre yet again with a massive 424-foot two run homer? He now has 18 career home runs in 42 games on the road against the Jays. 6-0.

Maybe Schneider was onto something when he called for the intentional walk. He's just got the timing all wrong at the moment. No better time for that with October a few days away.

The Blue Jays offense was dead in Tuesday night's 2-0 loss when the ump show took Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as its latest victim. On Wednesday night, they ran into AL Cy Young favorite Gerrit Cole, who (did we mention yet?) pitched a complete game shutout to slam the door on his case to win the award. He allowed just two hits and struck out five on 105 pitches.

We sincerely apologize to all after lobbying for the Yankees to rest Judge and Cole to close out the remainder of a lost 2023 season. We'll have this moment forever if the Blue Jays unsurprisingly trip over themselves in the next week and a half.