As Aaron Decide braced for an 0-2 pitch, Yankee Stadium roared in unison.
“MVP! MVP! MVP!” the gang bellowed, determined for the Yankees’ captain to ship a signature October second.
Decide, whose prior postseason struggles have been well-documented, rose to the event Tuesday, turning on a 99.7-mph, inside fastball from Blue Jays reliever Louis Varland. With two runners on, one out and the Yankees trailing — 2-0 within the ALDS and 6-3 within the fourth inning of a do-or-die Recreation 3 — Decide might solely watch and wait as his lumber despatched a towering flyball deep into the Bronx night time.
He had the space. That a lot was clear off the bat.
However would the ball keep truthful?
“I used to be simply saying, ‘Hit the f–king foul pole,’” Cody Bellinger said. “That’s what I used to be pondering. Or hit it previous the foul pole.”
“I was kind of giving it some body language, but I felt like it was going to hold,” Aaron Boone mentioned.
“I was screaming at it to stay fair,” added Carlos Rodón, who had already surrendered six earned runs over 2.1 innings. “I’m happy it did.”
It was the left area foul pole that left little doubt, impeding the game-tying homer’s trajectory. With a clank towards the higher half of the pole, Yankee Stadium exploded because the ball dropped to the sphere and Decide’s legend soared.
He and teammates credited former Yankees icons for the blast, which helped them safe a 9-6 win.
“I guess a couple ghosts out there in Monument Park helped kind of keep that fair,” Decide mentioned, returning to an line that the Yankees used to elucidate their 2024 postseason successes.
He went on to say that his world went “silent” as he watched the ball, even because the 47,399 followers in attendance misplaced their minds.
“You just got so much adrenaline pumping and you’re so locked in on the moment, you really don’t hear anything,” Decide mentioned. “The noise is probably so loud it’s deafening.”
With Decide’s residence run staying truthful, the Yankees’ dugout celebrated. Jazz Chisholm Jr. slapped the railing in pleasure. Bellinger strolled by, his arms prolonged within the air. Rodón, let off the hook, embraced Clarke Schmidt with a bear hug.
Then there was Decide. Usually calm and picked up, he gestured and shouted repeatedly on the Yankees’ bench, figuring out full effectively he had simply performed his half to maintain their season alive.
“I have no idea,” Schmidt mentioned when requested what Decide yelled. “I don’t think anyone knows. I don’t even think he knows. We were all just going crazy.”
With Chisholm including a go-ahead homer off Varland within the fifth and some insurance coverage runs following, the Yankees cruised to a comeback with the assistance of their bullpen. But it surely was Decide who swung the sport’s momentum together with his membership staring down the barrel of elimination.
“You could feel it in your bones,” mentioned Tim Hill, who threw 1.1 scoreless innings in reduction. “It was crazy. It was amazing.”
Aaron Decide with some impeccable timing for his first HR of this postseason. #Yankees pic.twitter.com/TdCDlJrFHF
For Hill and a number of other different Yankees pitchers, it wasn’t simply Decide’s clutch-ness that astounded. It was additionally the outcome he received off that specific pitch.
“I’m sure my guy over there on the other side is questioning everything, because the pitch that he hit was crazy,” Hill continued. “I can’t even comprehend.”
“All of us pitchers were in there saying that was the greatest swing we’ve ever seen,” mentioned Schmidt, citing the mixture of velocity, location, circumstances and outcome.
Requested what his response could be if he have been Varland, Gerrit Cole merely mentioned “frustrated,” because the pitch was nowhere close to the strike zone.
“But big man decided to put his foot down and get his hands started early,” Cole added with Varland’s 99.7-mph heater being the quickest pitch Decide has ever homered off of.
In line with MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, Decide’s jack additionally got here on a pitch 1.2 toes inside from the middle of residence plate. That’s the furthest inside or outdoors pitch he’s homered off of in his profession.
“I get yelled at for swinging at them out of the zone, but now I’m getting praised for it,” Decide mentioned with a smile when instructed of that stat. “It’s a game. You’ve got to go out there and play. I don’t care what the numbers say or where something was at, I’m just up there trying to put a good swing on a good pitch, and it looked good to me.”
Yankees pitchers weren’t the one ones surprised that Decide homered on that pitch, as Bellinger referred to as the swing unimaginable “for most.”
“He’s just unbelievable,” Chisholm chimed in. “We all went over the video about 10 times in the dugout. It was crazy.”
Decide, who requested fellow slugger Giancarlo Stanton for tips about Varland earlier than the house run, didn’t cease making his mark on Recreation 3 then and there, as he laid out for an Anthony Santander liner with a person on second within the fifth. With the sport nonetheless tied on the time, the Yankees’ proper fielder saved a run together with his diving catch.
Decide, who additionally had an RBI double within the third, scored once more within the sixth inning, crossing the plate after Ben Rice drove a sac fly to proper area. Decide reached by way of an intentional stroll, Blue Jays supervisor John Schneider’s go-to strategy for the dreaded hitter.
Alas, Toronto couldn’t implement that technique for Decide’s residence run at-bat, as a free cross would have introduced the go-ahead run to the plate.
“Hopefully he gets a bad night’s sleep and has some bad food tonight or something like that,” Schneider joked after the sport as he praised Decide. “Give him credit, man, that was a ridiculous swing.”
Not solely did Decide deal a blow that catapulted the Bombers to victory in Recreation 3, however he additionally made up for his shortcomings in Recreation 1 of the sequence, when he struck out chasing a Kevin Gausman splitter with the bases loaded, no one out and the Yankees down two within the sixth.
It’s been an in any other case spectacular postseason for No. 99, as Decide is now hitting .500 with a 1.304 OPS after going 3-for-4 with three runs scored and 4 RBI on Tuesday.
“I know there’s been a lot of narrative about Judge and previous postseasons and stuff like that,” Schmidt mentioned. “Just to see how locked in he is right now and where his swing is at, and he’s playing with a chip on his shoulder, it doesn’t come as a surprise.”
Whereas beforehand dinged for his lack of energy — his Recreation 3 residence run was his first of the postseason — Decide’s ongoing October efficiency has actually risen above his previous ones. He entered these playoffs a profession .205 postseason hitter. He had been even worse over his final 4 postseasons, hitting .160 with a .648 OPS regardless of having eight homers over 31 video games.
However on Tuesday, Decide, contending for his third MVP Award, reminded the baseball world simply how lethal he’s, regardless of the month. A number of extra reminders could assist the Yankees climb out of their ALDS gap.
On the very least, they survived one other day because of their celebrity.
“It was a best-player-in-the-game-type performance,” Boone mentioned. “It was special when, needless to say, we’re backs against the wall and then some.”
Initially Printed: October 7, 2025 at 11:39 PM EDT
