A LOSING BATTLE
Late rally falls short as Jays hand Yanks 3rd straight defeat
TORONTO — The Yankees are suddenly on a losing streak, and with it, they have dropped their first series of the season.
A late comeback attempt fell short as the Yankees lost their third straight game, 5-4 to the Blue Jays, in the second game of the series at Rogers Centre.
Carlos Rodon needed 101 pitches to complete just four innings, giving more work to an already taxed bullpen, which got let down by a key defensive miscue from Gleyber Torres. Meanwhile, left-hander Yusei Kikuchi tossed six innings of one-run ball to become the second straight Blue Jays starter to quiet the Yankees (12-6) after Chris Bassitt did it on Monday.
“In the end, we got outplayed tonight,” manager Aaron Boone said. “They played a heck of a game in a lot of ways. Made a couple huge, big plays defensively in the outfield. Kikuchi was really good. And they had those kind of tough at-bats that weren’t always ending in walks but made us work really hard and kind of outlasted us there.”
Now, after starting the season by winning each of their first five series, the
Yankees will try to avoid a sweep on Wednesday.
Once Kikuchi left the game with the Blue Jays (10-8) leading 5-1, the Yankees’ offense showed some signs of life. In the seventh inning, Torres walked and Alex Verdugo doubled, with both eventually coming around to score on a Jose Trevino groundout and Oswaldo Cabrera sacrifice fly that pulled the Yankees within 5-3.
They pushed across another run in the top of the ninth off closer Jordan Romano, but Cabrera grounded out to strand the tying run at third base.
“All the way to the very end, we’re competing,” said Aaron Judge, who went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts and is now hitting .182 with a .731 OPS. “They got a great pitching staff over there but as an offense, we gotta keep working, keep doing what we’re doing, keep passing the baton and we’ll be fine.”
Rodon only gave up three runs (while walking four and stranding six runners) but labored across four innings in his shortest outing of the season.
The Blue Jays put together at-bats of 12, 10 and (twice) eight pitches against him, with three of them ending with the batter (Bo Bichette, George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) drawing a walk. They also fouled off 27 pitches to help drive up his pitch count.
“I wish I was better tonight,” Rodon said. “I had good stuff, had stuff to get guys out.
But they had a good approach today. … Just need to be a little better with putting guys away, that’s for sure.”
The Blue Jays pushed across a pair of runs in the sixth inning against Luke Weaver and Nick Burdi that proved to be the difference. After Ernie Clement doubled, ex-Yankee Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a chopper to second base that Torres, with his momentum heading toward third base, threw there to try to get Clement. The throw was on time but Clement dove in around Cabrera’s tag.
Two batters later, Kiner-Falefa stole second, with Trevino’s throw popping out of Torres’ glove and trickling away, allowing Clement to score from third. Two batters later, Bichette roped an RBI single to make it 5-1.
“[Torres] just didn’t secure the ball on the stolen base,” Boone said. “That’s the one that hurt, obviously. They’re not in a double-steal situation. I think we get the out there [if he catches it].”
Torres did chip in two walks and was hit by a pitch as he scored a pair of runs late, thanks in part to two doubles by Verdugo and two RBI groundouts by Trevino.
Anthony Rizzo was also robbed of a pair of hits in left field by diving catches from Davis Schneider and
Daulton Varsho.
“They made more plays than we did tonight,” Boone said, “simple as that.”