Rally comes too little too late as Yankees drop game to Blue Jays

Today’s can be pretty much summed up from what happened in two half innings. In the bottom of the fifth, the Yankees had the bases loaded with two outs. Gary Sanchez lined one into center. It wasn’t the most well-struck ball, but it appeared to be headed for the ground in center, and the Yankees looked like they would score two runs. Instead, Randal Grichuk made a sliding catch to end the inning.

In the top of the sixth, J.A. Happ retired the first hitter of the inning. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Cavan Biggio then both reached on singles, the latter of which was a blooper that just landed in between two Yankees’ fielders. After Adam Ottavino came in and struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Randal Grichuk dropped another bloop single into no man’s land, scoring both runners.

Neither team’s offense had a particularly good day, but the Blue Jays managed to cash in and the Yankees didn’t, except for a too little too late ninth inning rally. It was just that kind of day. Aaron Judge puts four balls into play with greater than 100 mph exit velocity. All were singles. DJ LeMahieu had three but only one dropped in for a hit. That one Toronto bloop single ended up being the difference in a 2-1 Blue Jays win.

One bright spot was that Happ was pretty solid on the mound for the Yankees. He wasn’t in the game when they scored, but he does get dinged with the two runs. In his 5.1 innings, he allowed five hits and a walk, while striking out five.

The Yankees had a couple decent chances to get back in the game, but couldn’t do enough. In the seventh, the Yankees left a runner on after Aaron Judge was rung up on a pretty questionable strike three call:

MLB Gameday

In the ninth, the Yankees did get on the board, keeping their streak of not getting shut out intact. Aaron Hicks drew a walk, which was followed by a pair of outs. LeMahieu then kept the game alive with a single, as did Judge who drove in the team’s only run. That left the game up to Luke Voit, who worked the count full, but was eventually caught watching strike three.

The worst part of all this was that it was 2-1, and it still lasted over three and a half hours. A slow, uneventful, and ultimately anticlimactic game. The Yankees will have a chance to still take the series tomorrow, as they have Masahiro Tanaka on the mound for the rubber game.

Box score