Jays Lose to Yankees 8-1
Jays Lose to Yankees 8-1
Well, that was a reversion to form. After a week of scoring, the offence disappeared again. The pitching was also bad. Splitting with the Yankees is a decent outcome, but this was a very dispiriting way to get there. They went behind early and never really threatened to make it a game after that.
There was some drama in the third and fourth innings. First, Cole hit Vlad on the hand. He apologized, and Vlad accepted, but then in the next half inning Gausman hit Judge. I don’t think either hit batter was intentional, but it always creates some tension when teams are hitting each other’s stars. Judge was fine. Vlad seemed OK, but was eventually pinch hit for in the eighth. He was shown chatting on the bench with Bo, not looking too upset, so hopefully it was just a precaution in a game that was effectively over and not a sign of an actual injury.
Kevin Gausman had a rough day at the office. It began in the first, as a Juan Soto single and an Aaron Judge home run put New York up 2-0. It got worse in the second, with the Yankees tacking on two more runs on three walks and a pair of singles. He was able to bear down and make it through the third and the fourth without diffing the hole any deeper, but in the fifth he gave up a single, walk and double, scoring one more, and was lifted for Genesis Cabrera. Trent Grisham, Cabrera’s first batter, hit a double of his own to extend New York’s lead to 7-1. His final line was 7 runs on 7 hits, 5 walks and a hit batter, striking out 7 in 4.1 innings.
Meanwhile, the Jays couldn’t get much going against Cole. Vlad reached on a single in the first, and Springer singled and Varsho was hit by a pitch in the second, but none of them were brought home. Their lone score came in the third. Spencer Horwitz worked a walk, advanced when Vlad was hit by a pitch, and came home on a Turner ground ball single. That was it, though. Cole sat them down in order in the fourth and fifth. Over five innings, they managed a total of three hits and a walk while being hit twice and striking out six times.
Nate Pearson gave up an eighth run on a pair of doubles in the sixth while striking out three. Jose Cuas pitched a 1-2-3 top of the seventh. Meanwhile, Michael Tonkin retired five Jays in a row before conceding a single to Ernie Clement. Tim Hill took over and erased the runner by getting Kiermaier to ground out.
Chad Green pitched the eighth. He almost made the situation even worse, giving up a line single to Aaron Judge and a deep fly to centre to Alex Verdugo, but Kiermaier made the leaping grab at the wall to rob Verdugo of at least extra bases and probably a home run. Hill put up a 1-2-3 inning in the home half.
Bowden Francis took the ninth and worked around a single without giving up a run. Josh Maciejewski closed it out for the Yankees.
Jays of the Day: nobody qualifies.
Less so: Gausman (-0.318),
Next up, the Astros come to town for Canada Day. Yariel Rodriguez (0-2, 5.94) will make his third appearance back from the IL, hoping to regain the form we saw from him back in April. He’ll be opposed by Hunter Brown (5-5, 4.37). First pitch is 3:07pm ET.