That was not the way to start the most important weekend of the season to date. One day after finishing off a great series win at Daikin Park in Houston, the Yankees came home to face a Blue Jays team that not only has had their number all season, but one that had a considerable rest advantage. While the Yanks got home around five in the morning, the Jays last played on Wednesday in a day game in Cincinnati. It’s entirely plausible they could’ve arrived in New York over 36 hours earlier than the Yankees.
That was no excuse for the rookie Cam Schlittler, however, who flew home before the game on Thursday, but he certainly looked the part, getting chased in the second inning as Toronto jumped on him early, grinded him down, and forced the Yankees to get 22 outs out of their bullpen. It didn’t help that Kevin Gausman was on his game, shutting down a blisteringly hot offense, en route to a 7-1 loss for the Yankees.
The game started innocently enough, with Cam Schlittler striking out the first two batters he faced in long at-bats. Where things turned was a hard-hit single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., which set the Blue Jays up in an inning that just never ended. Schlittler continued to work in the zone and get ahead, but he encountered what’s sometimes known in the business as a “BABIP inning.”
Bo Bichette broke his bat and managed to hit a ball soft enough to score Vladdy from first on a bloop double. A more well-struck single and walk loaded the bases for Nathan Lukes, who blooped a single in front of Judge. The Jays took advantage of him not being 100 percent with the arm, hence two runs scored and it was 3-0 before the bats even got to hit.
Gausman worked a 1-2-3 first inning despite allowing a barrel to Judge. Schlittler went back out there and appeared to get two quick outs, only for a strikeout to get overturned to a hit-by-pitch because George Springer didn’t have his batting gloves strapped, and the ball hit the strap. Awesome.
Another brutally long AB saw Addison Barger work a walk, Vladdy hit a single that barely dropped in front of Bellinger, and Bichette made it 4-0 on a sac fly.
That chased Schlittler from the game. Unfortunate, as I thought he did a good job of pumping the strike zone and staying away from hard contact. Alas, the Jays deserve credit for working the rookie as much as humanly possible, chasing him at nearly 70 pitches in 1.2 innings. Ryan Yarbrough made his first appearance since coming off the IL at the beginning of Septemebr and struck out Daulton Varsho to end the inning.
The offense got one back in the bottom of the second, as Giancarlo Stanton returned to the DH role in style with his 19th home run of the season and 448th of his career, a moonshot to left field, to make it 4-1. Gausman was giving up some hard contact (four hard hit balls in first two innings), but only one hit.
Yarbrough retired Alejandro Kirk to start the third on a nifty 1-5-3 putout, which saw the ball bounce off his foot and right into the glove of Ryan McMahon. After a brief delay to check on him, he retired the side in order.
The action started to settle down from there, as Gausman sat down the Yankees in order in each of the next two innings, while Yarbrough was doing his job until the biggest Yankee killer left in the AL East struck. Guerrero smacked his 23rd home run of the season to make it 5-1 Toronto.
A miscommunication between Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. led to a Bichette pop-up dropping between them. Not a good look. Yarb got another three outs, but the offense was muted against a man they’ve all seen many times, with Gausman getting through five innings.
The saving grace of the Yankees’ bullpen today was the man who served as their fifth starter for much of the first half. Yarbrough ate 5.1 innings against the team that unceremoniously cut him at the end of spring training, completely making up for Schlittler being chased early. It was heroic relief for a team whose bullpen was decimated by a hotly contested series in Houston.
Meanwhile, Gausman continued to work efficiently. A leadoff walk by McMahon in the sixth was wasted in record time on three first-pitch outs. They threatened with a pair of singles by Judge and Stanton in the seventh, but the runners were stranded by Chisholm and Goldschmidt.
Mark Leiter Jr. finally relieved Yarbrough and allowed a run for the road on an RBI double by Ernie Clement, although a nice relay cut him down at third base. Gausman finished eight innings, working around a two-out single by Trent Grisham, for one of his best outings of the season.
Camilo Doval got the ninth, getting the first two outs before surrendering another run on a Varsho RBI double to make it 7-1. Braydon Fisher came on to close it out for the Blue Jays, walking Judge and then getting out of it in a hurry by doubling up Stanton to end the game.
The Yankees now sit four games behind the Jays in the AL East. They’ll look to flush this performance down the drain tomorrow, as Luis Gil faces off against veteran Chris Bassitt at 1:05pm ET on YES.
