You would be hard pressed to find a single positive thing to say about the Yankees after the first two games of the this American League Division Series. The offense was AWOL for long stretches, the starting pitching is porous, and the relievers’ pitches look like batting practice fastballs. A late surge against the mop-up men of Toronto’s bullpen made it a little more respectable, but the Blue Jays were able to coast for much of their 13-7 Game 2 win.
For those hoping the Yankees would take a different
approach than last night — where an aggressive approach early in the count led to uninterrupted strings of batted ball outs — you got your wish. However, that does not mean the results improved, Trey Yesavage striking out three in the first — Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, and Ben Rice all swinging over the top of splitters in the dirt — and another in a 1-2-3 second. They struggled mightily to pick up the splitter out of the rookie’s hand and it acted like a bonafide invisiball, racking up six whiffs on seven swings in the opening pair of frames.
Max Fried navigated around a pair of one-out singles by Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the first, getting Alejandro Kirk to bounce into the inning-ending double play. He would not be so lucky in the second. Daulton Varsho roped a leadoff double down the line in right that Aaron Judge failed to corral as it bounced around the corner, allowing Varsho to advance to third. However, even clean handling on the play would not have made a difference, Ernie Clement ambushing a hanging first-pitch curveball and just clearing the wall into the home bullpen in left for a two-run shot to put the Yankees in an early hole, 2-0, just like last night.
The offense’s approach against Yesavage did not improve after going down, and he struck out the side in the third, Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, and Grisham whiffing wildly to earn walks back to the dugout. Through three, the 22-year-old rookie had faced ten batters and struck out seven. Toronto kept on their relentless approach in the bottom-half, Schneider drawing a one-out walk and advancing to third on Vlad’s second single in as many ABs. Kirk dribbled a soft grounder to first to bring Schneider home and Varsho ripped another double down the line in right on a first-pitch sinker that caught way too much plate to make it 4-0. Clement then clubbed a single to left and advanced to second on the late throw home, and the Blue Jays’ lead was five.
The Yankees are known to struggle when facing a starter they haven’t seen, exacerbated by the lack of access to the Trajekt pitching machine that simulates apitcher’s release and movement, so perhaps they would fare better seing Yesavage the second time through the order. Nope. In fact, the approach arguably got worse, Judge, Bellinger, and Rice all falling victim to swinging strikeouts as Yesavage struck out the side again in the fourth to bring him into double digits. If an entire lineup of MLB hitters becomes this inept without access to a batting practice machine, that perhaps speaks to more troubling issues in the organization.
Toronto certainly boasts a potent offense as evidenced by the ten-spot they dropped in Game 1, however today was a case of Fried simply not having sharp command of any of his pitches. He routinely missed his spots, either over the heart of the plate or uncompetitively far away from the zone. He finished his day having given up seven runs on eight hits and two walks with just one strikeout in three-plus innings.
After Andrés Giménez singled and Myles Straw walked to open the bottom of the fourth, Aaron Boone had seen enough and called on Will Warren to eat innings, beginning with facing two on with no outs. Unfortunately, the Rogers Centre has become the rookie’s personal house of horrors, Warren getting bombarded for eight runs on ten hits in four innings on July 2nd, and that trend continued the moment he entered this game. He walked George Springer to load the bases with no outs, and though a strikeout of Schneider offered the briefest of reprieves, all four wheels came off simultaneously in short order. Vlad demolished a 2-1 fastball for a grand slam, Kirk singled, and Varsho clobbered a two-run blast, and what was an ostensibly manageable five-run deficit turned into an 11-0 laugher.
It took until the fifth inning for the Yankees to manage their second base runner after Judge’s one-out walk in the first, Jazz Chisholm Jr. reaching on a fielding error by Vlad, but Yesavage made quick work of Ryan McMahon and Volpe, finishing the frame with his eleventh and final strikeout to set a Blue Jays franchise record for most strikeouts in a postseason game. He retired the first hitter of the sixth before John Schneider emerged from the Toronto dugout to give the rookie his moment in the sun, allowing him to bask in the standing ovation of the adoring Rogers Centre crowd as he departed with the no-hitter intact, having allowed just one walk while striking out one shy of a dozen on 78 pitches.
In my best effort to apply glitter to this turd: at least the Yankees didn’t become the fourth team to be no-hit in the playoffs! Justin Bruihl was the first reliever out of Toronto’s bullpen, and he surrendered a two-out single to Judge and a two-run homer to Bellinger, so no shutout either!
Toronto seemed determined to win this one by double digits, and both Springer and Varsho played their part toward this aim with solo home runs off Warren in the fifth and sixth, respectively, Varsho becoming the third player in postseason history with four extra-base hits in a game with at least two home runs.
Credit where credit is due, the Yankees lineup didn’t just mail it in after going down big. The team-wide approach finally improved with Yesavage out of the game, but that is liable to happen when facing Toronto’s lowest leverage relievers. Rice followed Bellinger’s home run with a single and Giancarlo Stanton clubbed a double to put runners on second and third, but Jazz whiffed through an elevated slider to strand them in place.
McMahon led off the seventh with a single, and after Volpe struck out for the third time in three plate appearances, Paul Goldschmidt, Grisham, and Judge strung together three-straight one-out singles, Judge’s plating McMahon and keeping the bases loaded. Bellinger lifted a sac fly for his third RBI, Rice doubled to plate Grisham and put a pair in scoring position, and Stanton smacked a single to bring them both home as the Yankees scored five in the frame to make it 13-7.
New York still had a mountain to climb to erase the deficit in the game, but at the very least it builds that little bit of self-belief for the flight back to New York. The Yankees were desperate just to get some positive results to bring home with them — ten hits in 1.1 innings following Yesavage’s departure certainly qualifies — while Toronto burned seven relievers for the final 3.2 innings.
It’s evidence that the fight needed to storm back from 2-0 down in the series is still present within the hitters, the team slinking out of Toronto having lost Game 2, 13-7. The onus will be on the Yanks to go out and prove it though, and match the feats of only two teams in franchise history to make such a comeback: 2001 and 2017.
After getting outscored, 23-8, in the two games in Toronto, it is still borderline impossible to see a way back into this series for the Yankees. Even if Carlos Rodón pitches the game of his life on Tuesday, the offense has averaged just over three runs per game in five postseason contests while the bullpen allowed 14 runs in a span of just over ten innings this series alone.
The Yanks will have a day to digest the last two nights and then it’s right back at it for Game 3 in the Bronx. First pitch Tuesday night is scheduled for 8:08 pm EDT, Rodón defending home turf against Shane Bieber.
