The Yankees could defy the odds for only so long. Facing their fourth do-or-die situation of this October, against the AL East rival they couldn't topple during the regular season, the end finally came Wednesday night in a 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays in Game 4 of the Division Series.

That also brought the highly-praised post-Soto pivot to an unsatisfying conclusion, as this $320 million roster fell two rounds short of returning to the World Series. Even with another MVP-caliber season from Aaron Judge, who drove in their last October run with a two-out RBI single in the ninth, the Yankees championship drought now extends to a 16th year.

The Yankees seemingly had the edge in Game 4 by sending out Cam Schlittler -- fresh off his 12-strikeout gem in the wild-card clincher -- against the Blue Jays' bullpen carousel, a strategy they deployed after having no more starters available.

The desperation move felt doomed after the Yankees' offense sprung to life in Game 3, sparked by Judge's pole-denting homer for the ages. But as suddenly as the bats showed up in the Bronx, they disappeared just as quickly Wednesday night, as the Yankees scraped together only six hits -- the first run coming on Ryan McMahon's leadoff homer in the third inning.

We're not sure how McMahon, a .214 hitter this season, wound up supplying the entirety of the Yankees' offense in their fourth do-or-die game of this postseason. Judge was relatively quiet the night after Tuesday's dramatic blast, going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles. And with the Jays holding a 2-1 lead in the sixth, manager John Schneider chose to intentionally walk Judge with one out and the bases empty. A smart move.

It wasn't Schlittler's fault. The rookie phenom kept the Yankees within 2-1 before Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s costly error on a tailor-made double-play grounder ended Schlittler's night with one out in the seventh inning.

Considering that the rest of the rotation had combined for a total of eight innings over the first three games of this Division Series, Schlittler was a significant upgrade -- and benefitted from some solid defense until Chisholm's costly gaffe.

McMahon opened the seventh by hustling over to make sliding catch of Anthony Santander's pop foul in front of the Blue Jays dugout. And after Ernie Clement punched a single to rightfield, Andres Gimenez smacked an 88-mph bouncer directly to Chisholm, who was shading second base.

But instead of the room-service 4-6-3, the ball kicked off the heel of Chisholm's glove and spun into centerfield, putting runners at the corners. That brought out manager Aaron Boone for his second visit with Schlittler in two innings -- only this time he took the baseball, and the rookie walked off to standing ovation.

Schlittler didn't get away clean, however. Boone then called on Devin Williams, who whiffed George Springer but got burned when Nathan Lukes slapped a 95-mph fastball to leftfield for a two-run single. Since those two runs belonged to Schlittler, his ERA jumped from zero to 1.26 for his two playoff starts, which put him at the top of the misfiring rotation for this Division Series.

Going into this Division Series, if someone had told you the Yankees rotation would have a 16.88 ERA through the first three games, a Blue Jays' sweep figured to be the only logical outcome.

That level of pitching carnage, at this time of year, had to be unsurvivable, right? But it got worse. Only Max Fried, the $218 million ace and Cy Young contender, was able to complete as many as three innings, as Luis Gil and Carlos Rodon combined for a total of five.

Here's the unbelievable body of work for the Yankees' rotation as a whole: eight innings, 18 hits, 15 earned runs, four walks, five strikeouts and five homers.

"That's the nature of the postseason sometimes," Boone said before Game 4. "It's not going to be perfect."

The rotation didn't perform anywhere near expectations in the Division Series, yet somehow they were very much alive for Game 4, when the Yankees handed the ball to Schlittler, the breakout star of this October run. And Schlittler, once again pitching to save their season, made sure to reverse that trend in short order.

After entering to Lil Wayne's "Uproar," Schlittler didn't rack up strikeouts like the history-making 12-K performance in the Wild Card Series. That just doesn't happen against the Blue Jays, who led the majors in both contract rate (78.5%) and lowest K-rate (17.8%).

But Schlittler mostly kept Toronto in check through six innings, holding them to seven hits and two runs. After Addison Barger poked an infield single through the vacated left side, Boone drew boos from the Stadium crowd when he came out for a visit with his rookie phenom.

It was only a chat. Boone left Schlittler in -- drawing roars of approval -- and he escaped by getting Alejandro Kirk on a routine fly ball to rightfield and Daulton Varsho to bounce into a double play.

Schlittler's first strikeout didn't come until the fourth inning, but it was a big one -- he whiffed Anthony Santander on a 98.4-mph fastball to strand the go-ahead run at third base. The Blue Jays did take a 2-1 lead, however, on a pair of singles and Springer's sacrifice fly in the fifth. Vlad Guerrero Jr. dented Schlittler for the other run with an RBI single that kicked up chalk down the rightfield line in the first inning, but he limited the damage by stranding Jays at the corners.

But on Wednesday night, Schlittler couldn't quite summon the same magic of his wild-card start, and Yankee Stadium went dark for another winter.