Yankees 9 Blue Jays 1
The Jays lose two in a row for the first time this season. And lose a series for the first time as well.
The game was going along reasonably well until the bottom of the seventh inning. Then….well, it all went to hell:
- With Adam Cimber pitching, Giancarlo Stanton led off with a ground ball that Bo Bichette knocked down, instead of fielding it cleanly, he chased it down and threw wide of first. Vlad made a nice sprawling grab of it, but the first base umpire said he was off the bad. Replays seemed to show he was still touching the bag, but the call was confirmed upon review. I don’t know what they saw in the review room. What we saw was pretty straightforward. Ruled an error on Bo.
- Josh Donaldson doubled to left center, Lourdes tried to cut it off, but it got past him. Stanton scored.
- Gleyton Torres struck out.
- Marwin Gonzalez doubled home Donaldson.
- Julian Merryweather came in to pitch. Isiah Kiner-Falefa ground one to Bo, whose throw was a bit off-line, but he would have likely been safe anyway. Vlad threw to third, trying to get Gonzalez, who rounded the bag but got back safe.
- Jose Trevino ground one to Vlad, who came home, getting Gonzalez in a run down. Maybe too many throws, but Vlad got the ball and clearly tagged the runner, but the umpire didn’t see it. Add in the runner was well off his baseline, and he could have been out two ways. The Jays lost their challenge on the play at the start of the inning, but the umpires could have looked at it anyway, being the seventh inning. They didn’t. Vlad was more than a bit upset. So was I, for that matter.
- Aaron Hicks singled home one.
- Aaron Judge doubled home two more.
- Trent Thornton finally ended the inning, but 6 runs scored.
I thought we were robbed on the two calls. It would have been a much different inning had we gotten that first call. And it wouldn’t have been as bad had we got the second call. But that is the night it was.
It was a shame that we wasted Alek Manoah’s great start. 6 innings, 3 hits, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. The only bad moment was an Aaron Judge home run in the fifth.
Alek deserved better.
On offense, we got 8 hits but were only 1 for 11 with RISP.
Bo, Vlad and Kirk had two hits each. Vlad had 2 doubles (one of them hit at 116.1 MPH). Bo and Kirk had a double each (Kirk was also picked off first in the eighth inning).
A few guys had 0 for:
- Springer: 0 for 3, 3 strikeouts. He reached on catcher’s interference.
- Lourdes Gurriel: 0 for 4, 1 k. Left 3 on base.
- Zack Collins 0 for 4, 2 k.
- Matt Chapman: 0 for 3.
Jays of the Day: Manoah (.183 WPA) and Bo (.175, he did have the error, but if the umpires made the right call, Vlad would have saved him from the error).
Suckage: Cimber (-.338, again it wouldn’t have been so bad if umpires weren’t vision impaired), Merryweather (-.149), Gurriel (-.126) and Chapman (-.093).
That was less than fun. The good news is that Bo seems to be hitting if still using the scattergun on his throws.
Tomorrow we finish out the series with the Yankees. Kikuchi (0-1, 5.52) vs. Nestor Cortes (1-0, 1.31). I’d be ok with us scoring a bunch of runs.