After winning the Wild Card against the Red Sox, the Yankees had their chances to get things rolling in Game 1 of the ALDS. But, typical of their performance this year, inconsistency struck. And the Blue Jays made them pay brutally. Toronto cruised to a 10–1 win Saturday night, thanks to two homers from Alejandro Kirk and an early shot from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Now, this loss puts New York in a 0–1 hole in the best-of-five series.

And honestly, every part of the Yankees’ game came up short. Even manager Aaron Boone didn’t sugarcoat things in his postgame press conference. He broke down exactly what went wrong in the blowout loss. However, the offense took the maximum heat.

Well, the Yankees’ offense was definitely a problem. But their best shot came in the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with nobody out for Aaron Judge.

Judge battled through an eight-pitch at-bat but ended up chasing out of the zone for a strikeout. Then Cody Bellinger drew a four-pitch walk to finally bring in New York’s first run of the series, but that was all they could get.

Ben Rice popped out to end Kevin Gausman’s day. Then Giancarlo Stanton went down swinging against reliever Louis Varland, who blew a 100.7 mph fastball right by him.

With all those big bats getting silenced, it’s clear the Yankees’ offense has some serious work to do. On the flip side, Toronto’s pitching was lights-out.

Kevin Gausman tossed just 75 pitches over 5.2 innings, holding New York to one run while striking out five!

The Yankees’ bullpen is reading the same script

While their offense surely didn’t perform at the desired level, the NYY bullpen is the same as it has been all this year.

Luis Gil got the start for the Yankees in tonight’s game. But his 2025 postseason outing was short-lived, with just 2.2 innings. He gave up a couple of homers, and Boone couldn’t bet on him anymore. The result?

He was pulled in the third, leaving the bullpen to clean up. Same scene that we saw in game 1 of the Wild Series. Remember when Boone pulled Max Fried, leaving the bullpen exposed?

And the bullpen struggled. Luke Weaver again came in for the second time this postseason and couldn’t record an out, giving up three runs. He was supposed to keep the Yankees close in the seventh, but he collapsed under pressure again.

Now, after giving up two earned runs to Boston in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, Weaver is still without a strikeout in the postseason. Afterwards, Fernando Cruz and Paul Blackburn didn’t fare much better in the ALDS Game 1, giving up four more combined.

While the Yankees’ offense can be a bit inconsistent, it’s clear their bullpen just isn’t reliable. So, if New York wants to take the ALDS, they might have to lean on their hitters and their starting pitching. Because right now, it’s unclear whether their relief corps could do any wonders this year.