Yankees Highlights: LeMahieu, Sanchez go deep, but super bullpen blows it

The Yankees had every chance to win one north of the border tonight, but blew a late lead and fell beneath a quick barrage of Toronto homers. They’re now on a three-game losing skid, and their streak of nine straight series wins has been snapped. With the Rays defeating the Tigers, New York’s division lead fell to 1.5 games. They’ll look to salvage the series finale tomorrow night, when J.A. Happ starts against his former team.

Winner of the Game

DJ LeMahieu keeps on keeping on. He provided what looked for some time like it would be the biggest hit of the name, as his three-run blast in the sixth turned a tie game into a 7-4 Yankees’ lead:

His seventh homer of the year brings his season line to .315/.363/.466 with a 121 wRC+. Not bad for the supposed super utilityman.

Honorable mention: Gary Sanchez smashed a bullet for his 19th dinger of the year. He now leads the American League in home runs despite having missed time with a calf injury.

Loser of the Game

Pour one out tonight for the super bullpen. Staked to a three-run advantage thanks to LeMahieu, Adam Ottavino put two runners on in the sixth, and needed Tommy Kahnle to come in and dance out of the jam. In the seventh, Jonathan Holder proved incapable of Jonathan Holding the Blue Jays at four runs, allowing two to score in just two-thirds of an inning (though more shoddy defense didn’t help his cause). And finally, in the eighth, Zack Britton allowed a three-run blast to young Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to put the Yankees’ lead to rest for good. Not be outdone, Luis Cessa came on to allow Randal Grichuk’s second homer of the game, a solo shot, as well as a solo homer to Yankee legend Brandon Drury, which brought the score to its final tally at 11-7.

Chart

FanGraphs