Boy, it is frightening to imagine what Yankee baseball over the last decade or so would look like without Aaron Judge. The Captain clubbed a game-tying, two-run home run in the sixth inning of tonight’s game, a home run that seemed to wash away the sins of sloppy baseball and give the Yankees a leg up. It did not, but I’m glad he hit it any way. Once again, the Yankees couldn’t get out of their own way and lost the series finale with Toronto 8-4.
I feel compelled to revisit what the New York Post
wrote about the Yankee meltdown in last year’s World Series:
“...the Yankees were talent over fundamentals. That if you run the bases with purpose and aggression, the Yankees will self-inflict harm...[The Dodgers] were amazed how many times relay throws came skittering through the infield with no one taking charge and how often Jazz Chisholm Jr., for example, was out of place or just standing still when a play was in action.”
That was almost a year ago. The organization spent all winter trying to address the gaps that were so obvious the NL pennant winners drove a truck through them. Today all those same gaps were on display, as the Yankees kicked the ball around to the tune of four errors, unable to manage the pressure of an opposing team that puts the ball in play.
Max Fried wasn’t great tonight, I thought he lacked a real out pitch with a lot of deep counts. It appeared as though he had a cut or opened blister on his left pinky towards pitch 100 or so. He only struck out three Blue Jays, against the same number of walks, and his own vaunted defense betrayed him on perhaps the biggest play of the game:
I get the idea here from Max, in a tie game after Anthony Volpe had just squared you up with a home run (we’ll get to that in a minute). It’s a throw that’s probably going to be late even if J.C. Escarra comes up with it, and it getting away from the catcher means a 3-2 mistake run becomes a 4-2 game.
God, what else do we even want to talk about?
The Yankees managed just three hits against starter Chris Bassitt, albeit they were all home runs:
Then a ball landed behind Cody Bellinger in right field, as he stared up at the lights with his arms out wide. Myles Straw, he of the .591 OPS, laced a double down the left field line to give the Jays the lead again. Straw advanced on a fly ball that Bellinger managed to catch, and came home when Ben Rice misplayed a ball at first. 6-4 Jays.
It was all so ugly that when Bo Bichette delivered the dagger, a two-run home run, I was almost relieved.
Home runs happen. Bichette went down and golfed that baseball out, you tip your cap. It was “clean,” in such a way that any part of this game could be called that.
The Jays have thoroughly outclassed the Yankees in seven games at Rogers Center. The hardest team in baseball to strike out held up their end of the bargain, and any team in baseball that’s not taking notes on how much the Yankees wilted isn’t doing their jobs right. Expect clubs to prioritize contact against New York going forward, forcing the defense to do its job.
Seven games in Toronto, six losses. Just about all of ‘em stunk. They’re behind you now, and the Yankees get a much-needed rest day, not to stew but to refocus before taking on Philadelphia in the Bronx on Friday night.
More from pinstripealley.com:
- Yankees 1, Blue Jays 4: Sloppiness dooms Bombers in Toronto
- Yankees 2025 draft tracker: 18 of 19 draftees signed
- Sequence of the Week: Carlos Rodón (All-Star Game)
- Yankees Trade Deadline Coverage
- The hitting genius of Aaron Judge
- Pinstripe Alley’s Top 100 Yankees
- 2000 Yankees Diary: The 25th Anniversary of MLB’s Last Three-peat
