BRONX BUMMERS
The Yankees hit town for a three-game set with rookie sensation Aaron Judge less than overpowering (and catcher Gary Sanchez’s glove turned to stone).
The Blue Jays came within three outs of a significant win over the American League-leading Houston Astros on Sunday afternoon.
Closing out the final inning, which they entered leading by three runs, wouldn’t just have given the Jays the edge in a three-game weekend series on the road. Taking their final regular-season game against the Astros also would have secured a 4-3 advantage in the season series against a team with World Series aspirations.
For a Jays squad looking to stay involved in a congested race for the AL’s final playoff spot, a definitive win over Houston could have boosted flagging post-season hopes.
Instead, the Astros exploded for four runs in the bottom of the ninth, salvaging the game and sending the Jays into a series against the New York Yankees realizing they’d squandered and opportunity.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” said pitcher Marcus Stroman after Sunday’s game. “There’s no other word for it. It’s just a frustrating loss.”
Entering Tuesday’s series opener at the Rogers Centre, the Jays are 5-5 against the Yankees this season. It’s the first of nine remaining games against the Yankees this year — six in Toronto before a three-game series in New York to conclude the schedule.
The Yankees come to Toronto fresh off an 8-1 thrashing of Cleveland, their second straight win against the AL Central leaders, keeping them three games back of the Boston Red Sox for the division lead and tied with the Kansas City Royals in the wild-card chase heading into Monday’s action.
But August hasn’t gone smoothly for the Yankees.
Before rallying to win the weekend series in Cleveland they had lost four straight by a combined score of 18-6.
When they took the field Sunday, they did so without catcher Gary Sanchez, who made news with his strong start to the season but was benched by manager Joe Girardi for indifferent defence.
Right fielder Aaron Judge sits atop the AL with 35 home runs, just one behind Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton for the major-league lead through Sunday. The 25-year-old phenom is hitting .375 and slugging .850 with a 1.318 OPS in 40 at-bats against Toronto this year. When the Jays and Yankees last played July 5, Judge went 2-for-4 with a home run in a 7-6 New York win.
But Judge has struggled since midsummer. He has hit safely in four straight games, but is still batting just .182 after the all-star break. Judge finished his last game against the Jays batting .331 and starts Tuesday hitting .299.
“The past couple weeks, I’ve been getting off my approach,” Judge told the New York Times after Sunday’s win over Cleveland. “And when you get off your approach here in the major leagues, people expose you.”
Sunday’s loss in Houston dropped the Jays’ record to 3-2 in August.
In each of the last two seasons the club had ridden August success to a spot in the playoffs.
Last year, the Jays went 17-11 for the month, and in 2015 they won 21 games in August while losing only six.
This month’s schedule includes 11 games against three teams — New York, Tampa Bay and Baltimore — competing for a wild-card spot, and three more against division-leading Boston.