Yanks vs. Sox
And it matters!
TORONTO — Two starts into his Yankees career, Sonny Gray might be wondering what the person who dubbed his new team the Bronx Bombers was smoking.
In his Yankees debut last week, his new teammates provided Gray with one run in addition to committing three errors in the first inning. At least he was pitted against Indians ace Corey Kluber.
Thursday night at Rogers Centre, Gray battled control issues and made a costly throwing error, but again watched the Yankees’ bats go soft in a 4-0 loss to the Blue Jays that was witnessed by 43,212.
“We need to improve,’’ Brett Gardner said. “Sonny pitched well enough to keep us in the game.’’
Gray, who tied a season-high with four walks, allowed three runs (two earned), four hits in six innings and is 0-2 as a Yankee.
“Clearly, I wasn’t throwing enough strikes,’’ Gray said. “I had a runner on base every inning but one. I thought I made decent pitches in big situations, but I gave up too many free passes.’’
The Blue Jays scored solo runs in the second, third and fourth innings off Gray and Jose Bautista launched a homer off Chasen Shreve in the seventh for the final run.
Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada, who the Yankees had hit hard in two of his three starts against them this season, provided seven shutout innings and held the opposition without a hit in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position.
“He had an effective change and got some border line [pitches],’’ Todd Frazier said of Estrada (5-7).
Frazier wasn’t the only Yankees hitter who gave plate umpire Jerry Meals a sideways glance or two. Yet, to blame the Yankees’ inconsistency at the plate on balls and strike calls by an umpire would be laughable.
In seven of the past nine games, the Yankees have scored a total of 10 runs. They plated a combined 19 in the other two.
The loss dropped the second-place Yankees 4½ lengths back of the AL East-leading Red Sox, who are on an eight-game winning streak and open a three-game series in The Bronx on Friday night. It’s the Yankees’ largest deficit since July 14 when they also were 4 ½ games out.
Aaron Hicks returned from the dis- abled list but did nothing to help the Yankees avoid being blanked for the third time this season. Hicks went 0-for-5.
The Yankees’ problems hitting with runners in scoring position was evident early when Didi Gregorius, Garrett Cooper and Aaron Judge doubled with two outs in the first, second and third innings, respectively, and didn’t score.
Cooper singled and Ronald Torreyes walked to start the fifth, but Gardner flied out, Hicks popped out and Judge was called out looking.
Judge’s struggles since the AllStar break have been dissected and everybody seems to have a solution. He needs a day off. He should be taken out of the middle of the order. He is pressing. He has forgotten how to hit. His first half was a mirage.
Through it all he has kept it simple if not productive.
“Stay with the approach and it will work out,’’ said Judge, who was called out twice and has whiffed at least once in the last 27 games, which is the longest stretch in the big leagues this season and the longest stretch by a non-pitcher since former Yankee Chris Carter whiffed in 31 straight games from Sept. 2, 2012 to April 15, 2013.
Splitting with the AL Centralleading Indians was a confidence booster, but losing two of three to the Blue Jays, last in the AL East, isn’t a good way to enter a crucial series against the Red Sox.