Yankees drop game two, series to Blue Jays

Scoring seven runs should be enough to win a ballgame, right? Well, committing three errors and surrendering five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning doesn’t help. As a result, the Yankees lost a frustrating one in Toronto by a score of 11-7. It was a game that started off slow for New York and ended fast.

James Paxton took the mound for the Yanks in his home country. The last time he pitched against the Blue Jays in Toronto he threw a no-hitter. His no-hit bit on Wednesday night, however, didn’t last long. In the bottom of the first, noted Yankee killer Randal Grichuk blasted his 11th home run of the season to put his team up 2-0 early. In his first at-bat back from his demotion to the minors, Teoscar Hernandez led off the second by ripping a double down the left-field line. Cavan Biggio would later drive him in on a single to center to extend the Blue Jays lead to 3-0.

The Yankees were silent at the plate up until the fourth inning. Gary Sanchez took it into his own hands to get the Bombers into both the hit and run column at the same time. The Kraken hit a rocket into the left-field seats for his now AL leading 19th homer on the season. With that home run, Sanchez passed Yogi Berra for the most bombs by a Yankees catcher before the All-Star break. I’d take a wild guess and say he’ll break Berra’s record by more than one.

The Yankees weren’t done scoring there, though. In the top half of the fifth, both Cameron Maybin and DJ LeMahieu singled home runners. Maybin would later score on a bases-loaded single by Sanchez. The Bombers would head into the bottom half of the inning up 4-3.

As for this Vladimir Guerrero Jr. guy? He’s pretty decent, isn’t he? The top prosect grounded a ball to third that Giovanny Urshela made a great play on, but he couldn’t get the throw to Luke Voit on target. It hit the wall beyond the dugout that allowed Lourdes Gurriel Jr. score all the way from first. Paxton’s night would come to a close as his final line is: 4.2 innings, four hits, three earned runs, four strikeouts and three walks.

Adam Ottavino would come into a 4-4 game with two out and a man on. Round number alert: Ottavino would strike out the one hitter he faced which was also his 500th strikeout of his nine-year career.

In the top of the sixth, DJ LeMahieu hammered his seventh homer over the left field wall. It was a three-run shot that put the Yankees up 7-4. LeMahieu is now batting .421 with RISP. That’s 24 for 51!

It was all downhill for New York after that, though. Jonathan Holder came on in the seventh. Teoscar Hernandez ripped a two-run double down the first-base line. I would say the trip to the minors helped him find his stroke. Zack Britton replaced Holder to record the final out of the inning. Britton would come back out for the eighth, and with two men one base, Vladito hit a go-ahead, three-run bomb to put Toronto ahead 9-7.

Luis Cessa joined the party and tried to limit the damage. He didn’t. Randal Grichuk and Brandon Drury went back-to-back extending the Blue Jays lead to 11-7, and that would be the final score.

With that, the Yankees lost the series to the Blue Jays. It’s Toronto’s first series win since April 26-28, and the Yankees’ first series loss since April 30-May 1. New York will look to salvage the last game of the three-game set tomorrow night as J.A. Happ will take on Edwin Jackson.