New York’s season ends with Game 4 loss to Blue Jays

NEW YORK — Momentum was on the Yankees’ side, and so was the matchup.

A night after they staved off elimination with a dramatic come-from-behind victory, the Yankees turned to rookie phenom Cam Schlittler for Game 4 of the ALDS, relying on the right-hander to conjure more October magic.

The Toronto Blue Jays, meanwhile, resorted to a bullpen game — an unenviable position after they dipped deep into their relief corps a night earlier.

But with their playoff lives on the line, the Yankees’ bats didn’t rise to the occasion, spelling an unceremonious end to the season and hopes of returning to the World Series.

The Yankees lost, 5-2, on Wednesday night in the Bronx as Toronto claimed the best-of-five playoff series, three games to one.

The Yankees managed only six hits against eight Toronto relievers and finished 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position.

Down by a run in the sixth inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. rolled into an inning-ending groundout, stranding two runners on base.

Down by three runs in the seventh, Trent Grisham popped out to leave two more men on base — this time with Aaron Judge on deck.

And down by four runs in the eighth, Austin Wells flew out with the bases loaded, sending a first-pitch splitter from closer Jeff Hoffman harmlessly to left field.

Between Ryan McMahon’s game-tying solo home run to lead off the third inning and Amed Rosario’s pinch-hit single in the seventh, the Yankees made 14 outs without recording a hit.

They left 10 men on base.

The offensive outage squandered a valiant effort by Schlittler, who limited Toronto’s loaded lineup to two earned runs over 6 1/3 innings.

Schlittler surrendered an RBI single to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the first inning and a sacrifice fly to George Springer in the fifth — the latter of which gave Toronto the lead for good — but was otherwise sharp, pounding the strike zone and letting his defense make plays behind him.

The Yankees’ defense ultimately let Schlittler down, however, as Chisholm booted a one-hopper off the bat of Andres Gimenez with one out in the seventh. Had Chisholm corralled the ball, he likely would have turned an inning-ending double play.

Instead, the error put runners at the corners. Both would score on Nathan Lukes’ dagger two-out, two-run single against reliever Devin Williams, which gave Toronto a 4-1 lead.

Wednesday marked the second time this postseason that the Yankees started Schlittler in an elimination game.

In a dominant playoff debut last week, Schlittler hurled eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts in a 4-0 win over the Boston Red Sox in the winner-take-all Game 3 of their wild-card series.

Schlittler recorded only two strikeouts on Wednesday, changing his approach against a Toronto team that had tagged him for four runs in 1 2/3 innings on Sept. 5. The Blue Jays fouled off 24 of Schlittler’s 66 offerings that day, and afterward, the rookie suggested he was tipping his pitches.

“I’m a different pitcher now than I was when I faced them a month ago,” Schlittler said ahead of Game 4.

“They had a good game plan that day, and they were able to foul a lot of balls off and work my count. Going into [Game 4], just making sure that I can make those adjustments and get the weak contact that I’m looking for,” he said.

After losing Games 1 and 2 in Toronto in blowout fashion, the Yankees stayed alive with an instant-classic 9-6 win in Game 3 on Tuesday night in the Bronx. The Yankees overcame a five-run deficit to do so, with Judge’s game-tying three-run home run off the left-field foul pole representing the biggest blow.

Judge remained hot in Game 4, going 2 for 4 with a ninth-inning RBI single, and he finished this postseason 13 for 26 (.500) with seven RBI.

Guerrero went 9 for 17 (.529) with three home runs, nine RBI and a 1.609 OPS in the ALDS, further cementing his status as a Yankee killer. He had at least one RBI in all four games.

After winning the American League pennant last year, the Yankees (94-68) tied Toronto for best record in the AL in the regular season. Still, the Yankees finished second in the AL East to the Blue Jays, who claimed the division tiebreaker because they won the head-to-head season series, 8-5.

The Yankees’ season-long struggles against the Blue Jays continued in the playoffs, as Toronto outscored them, 34-19, in the four-game ALDS. Including the postseason, the Yankees went 6-11 against the Jays this year.

Toronto now advances to the ALCS, where it will face the winner of the Seattle-Detroit series.

The Yankees, meanwhile, enter the offseason earlier than they hoped, now 16 years removed from their last World Series championship.