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Toronto Blue Jays admit Yankees might’ve figured out part of their strategy

Colton Pankiw
Colton Pankiw
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Oct 6 2025, 8:59 pm
Toronto Blue Jays admit Yankees might’ve figured out part of their strategy
MLB on Fox

The Toronto Blue Jays’ pitching staff may need to make some adjustments before Game 3 of the ALDS on Tuesday.

This series has gone about as well as the Blue Jays could have hoped so far, as they have outscored the Yankees 23-8 and have a 2-0 series lead. That said, their divisional rival may have figured something out with their pitching staff in the latter part of Game 2.

After failing to muster up a single hit against Trey Yesavage through 5.1 innings, the Yankees wound up putting seven runs on the board in what was a 13-7 loss. Shortly after the game, discussion began that reliever Seranthony Dominguez may have been tipping his pitches.

A video during Dominguez’s lone inning pitched shows Aaron Judge tapping his helmet on three separate occasions during a Ben Rice at-bat. Dominguez went on to throw a splitter on all three occasions where Judge was spotted tapping his head.

Manager John Schneider was asked about this, but didn’t give any bulletin board-type answer. Instead, he mentioned that Dominguez needs to do a better job of not tipping his pitches moving forward.

What makes this all the more interesting is that it also appeared the Yankees were relaying signs in their final regular-season series against the Blue Jays. Asked about it at the time, Schneider made it clear he believed they were doing so, but quickly admitted he didn’t see any issue with them doing so.

“They were relaying. They’re good at it. … It’s fair game,” Schneider said. “The whole MLB knows the Yankees are good when they’ve got something. I’m not the only one that’s going to say it. Maybe I’m the only one who’s going to say it publicly, but we’ve got to do a better job of making sure we’re not giving anything away.”

Like Schneider mentioned, the Yankees are well within their right to relay signs if pitches are being tipped, which certainly appeared to be the case with Dominguez last night. He and the rest of the Blue Jays’ pitching staff will need to tighten that up to eliminate the Yankees and move on to the ALCS.

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