New York Post

LIMPING TO THE FINISH LINE

YANKS FALL TO JAYS AGAIN

- By DAN MARTIN

So much for that 10-game winning streak turning around the Yankees’ season.

With Thursday’s 4-1 loss to Toronto in Buffalo, the Yankees have lost four of their past five as they head into their final series of the regular season against the Marlins in The Bronx.

After Wednesday’s wipeout, which featured four errors, the offense couldn’t figure out lefthander Hyun-Jin Ryu and dropped five of their seven games at Sahlen Field this season.

The Blue Jays clinched a postseason berth with the victory — and cost the Yankees a chance to secure second place in the AL East. Instead, there’s still a chance they could finish as low as seventh in the AL seeding.

And it showed again how vulnerable the Yankees are when they’re not in The Bronx. They finished this abbreviate­d season 11-18 away from Yankee Stadium — somewhere they probably won’t be after Sunday.

“We’re gonna have to do better than that,’’ Aaron Boone said of their performanc­e on the road. “I do know if we’re playing at our best, I don’t give a crap where it is. We’ll get it rolling. We’ve got to get ourselves in order and start playing good baseball to give ourselves a chance. It doesn’t matter where it is.”

Brett Gardner admitted their lack of success away from home is a concern.

“It is,’’ Gardner said. “We always seem to play well at home. On the road is a little more of a challenge. We’ll probably be playing on the road and then head to the West Coast hopefully. We definitely have to turn the page and try to block it out and play our best baseball no matter where we’re at.”

Shut down for most of the game, the Yankees scored a run in the eighth before Gary Sanchez, his full-time spot behind the plate in question for the postseason, pinch-hit for Kyle Higashioka with the bases loaded, two out and the Yankees trailing by three runs.

He sent a 1-2 pitch from Rafael Dolis out to deep center, but Randal Grichuk tracked it down at the wall for the final out of the inning.

Boone said he thought it was gone when Sanchez hit it, but the wind might have stopped it from going out.

“Good to see him get a good swing off in a big spot,’’ Boone said. “Unfortunat­ely, it was short.’’

Jordan Montgomery, whose

 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States