The Yankees beat the Blue Jays on Sunday to win the series
The Yankees beat the Blue Jays 4–3 in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon to win the series against Toronto. DJ LeMahieu had the game winning walk-off single in the 10th while Toronto had five infielders.
The Blue Jays brought in an outfielder to play infield in the bottom of the 10th with Anthony Volpe on third with one out with LeMahieu at the plate after Trent Grisham sacrificed to the pitcher. LeMahieu walked it off with a hard hit single up the middle with the five infielders for his second RBI. It was LeMahieu’s fifth career walk off hit and his fourth with the Yankees.
The fifth infielder was on the right side of second and he might have made the play if he was on the left side. LeMahieu had two RBI in this game and he had six RBI in his previous start. The Yankees then celebrated on field and gave LeMahieu a Gatorade shower during his interview on the field with Meredith Marakovits.
LeMahieu is 3–8 with a homer and eight RBI in his last two games (he didn’t get an at-bat in his game between this one and his six RBI game) after being 4–36 with just three walks in his previous 14 games. LeMahieu has eight of his 21 RBI in his last two starts. His last two starts have increased his OPS from .480 to .520.
“I feel like I’m taking some pretty good swings and feeling much better at the plate,” LeMahieu said after the game.
The Yankees have won each of their last three series and have gone 7–2 in those three series. Before these three series, the Yankees had only won one of their previous 11 series and had gone 11–22 in those 11 series. The Yankees won their first series at home since they swept the Twins at Yankees Stadium from June 4–6. Before this series, the Yankees had lost their previous eight series at home.
The Blue Jays intentionally walked Aaron Judge three times on Sunday, which is most by a Yankee since Bernie Williams was walked three times on September 26, 1999.
“It sucks. You want him at the plate,” Soto said about the Blue Jays intentionally walking Judge three times. “To see them pass him over, it makes me mad. I don’t like that. I want them to challenge him and see what he can really do. But it is what it is. It’s part of the game and they are trying to win, too. You respect that.”
Gerrit Cole pitched well after having his previous start skipped due to general fatigue and a stomach bug, which meant Sunday’s game was his first start in 10 days. The threw 5.2 innings and allowed just two earned runs, five hits, zero walks and had four strikeouts. He now has a 5.09 ERA in his eight starts this season but coming into this game his ERA was inflated by his two starts against the Mets since he had a 11.27 ERA in two starts against the Mets but a much improved 3.20 ERA in his five other starts.
In his two starts against the Mets, he allowed 12 earned runs in 9.2 innings with seven homers allowed. In his six other starts, Cole has combined to allow just two homers.
His 5.40 ERA though seven starts was his worst ERA in his first starts of a season in his career. Cole had a 90 pitch count in this start and was taken out of the game after throwing 91 pitches. Cole struggled in the first two innings and then had mound visit from pitching coach Matt Blake and then improved especially with curveball. Blue Jays were 2–13 against Cole’s fastball and he was searching for what pitches would work his first two innings.
Cole allowed one hit in the first inning and four hits in the second inning. In the second inning he allowed an RBI double to Addison Barger and an RBI single to Ernie Clement. After Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s double to leadoff the third inning, Cole got 10 of the next 11 batters out that he faced and the only batter that reached base in that span was a hit by pitch in the fifth inning. Cole bounced back really well from allowing two runs in the second inning of this game.
“Certainly I’m in a better spot physically than I was the other day,” Cole said. “It was definitely beneficial to have a few extra days.”
The Yankees bullpen had a 2.16 ERA in its last seven games going into Sunday and the bullpen continued to pitch well in the series finale on Sunday in a game that had a one hours and 49 minutes rain delay in the eighth inning.
In this game, five relief pitchers combined to not allow an earned run (one overall) in 4.1 innings. Luke Weaver pitched very well allowing just one walk in 1.1 innings while throwing 18 of his 30 pitches for strikes as the first pitcher to come into the game after Cole. He now has a very good 2.86 ERA in 43 games this season with 68 strikeouts in 63 innings.
Enyel De Los Santos, in his second appearance with the Yankees after being coming to the team on the day of the trade deadline, got the first two outs of the ninth inning while allowing a single to Clement.
Mark Leiter Jr, who was the other relief pitcher acquisition before the trade deadline, threw a nasty splitter for a strikeout of Alejandro Kirk to end the top of the 10th inning. He retired the side in order in the 10th except for hitting Dalton Varsho with a pitch. Leiter Jr. did not allow a hit or a walk and had three strikeouts in 1.1 innings and has a 2.25 ERA in his four games with the Yankees and has not pitched in extra innings in two of his four games with the Yankees. The Yankees are 2–0 in extra inning games with Leiter Jr. after being 2–6 in extra innings without Leiter Jr.
The Blue Jays starting pitcher Yariel Rodriguez pitched 4.2 scoreless innings with four strikeouts and now has a 3.86 ERA in 11 starts. He has pitched around the world including being a relief pitcher in 2020, 2021 and 2022 in Japan. He did not pitch professionally in the 2023 season. The 27-year-old from Cuba was part of the Cuba national team at 2019 WBSC Premier12 tournament. The Cuban national team finished in fifth place out of the 12 countries in this tournament. Rodriguez started the first game of the 2023 World Baseball Classic for Cuba in Chinese Taipei, striking out six and giving up one run in four innings.
During his three seasons with the Chunichi Dragons in Japan, Rodriguez mostly worked as a reliever which meant he scaled back his repertoire, largely relying on his heater and slider.
The Yankees scored their four runs before extra innings off of Blue Jays relief pitchers. Zach Pop allowed two earned runs while lasting just a third of an inning and Genesis Cabrera, who has a 3.65 ERA this season, allowed a run in one inning pitched. The run that Cabrera allowed was a solo homer to Juan Soto that hit the cushioning on the top of the wall and bounced into the bullpen. Judge was intentionally walked again after that homer, which proves how dominant of a season he is having. That homer by Soto was hit in the 7th, and he has a clutch above .350 average in the seventh inning or later this season.
Austin Wells, who went 1–4 with a strikeout and a walk in this game, has a .333 (20–60) average in last 17 games. As cleanup hitter in 12 games coming into Sunday he had an impressive .356 average and .971 OPS. Jazz Chisholm hit a line drive to shortstop with bases loaded to end the 1st inning after Giancarlo Stanton got out previously. Chisholm made a nice running play to tag Guerrero Jr trying to steal third and then made a nice fielding play and threw across his body for the second out of the second inning. Stanton grounded out with runners on second and third to end the 3rd inning.
The Blue Jays intentionally walked Judge with a runner on first base and two men out in the fifth inning of a 2–0 game. Yankees had two outs bases empty in 5th and then had two outs with bases loaded. Stanton struck out on inside pitch with bases loaded to end the inning. Yankees left eight runners on base in the first five innings. In Stanton’s first three at-bats, he popped out with bases loaded, grounded out with runners on second and third and struck out with bases loaded. Stanton went 0–5 in this game, 0–3 with runners in scoring position and is 3–18 in five games since coming off of the injured list.
In sixth inning, Chisholm and Anthony Volpe singled to start the inning and then they did a double steal led by Chisholm. They then scored on consecutive at-bats with LeMahieu hitting a sac fly to tie the game at two after Trent Grisham’s RBI groundout.
Grisham had a rare error when he dropped a fly ball to start the 8th inning. Grisham and Judge, who are two centerfielders went after ball. Judge should have let Grisham take control and make the catch there. That would usually be the center fielder’s ball (Grisham) but there was a miscommunication, which led to that error.
That error led to a run scoring on long sacrifice fly on good catch by Judge. Holmes would not be bale to come back into the game after the rain delay, which was not ideal, but new acquisitions De Los Santos and Leiter Jr pitched well.
The Yankees are now 6–1 with Chisholm Jr. in the lineup after being traded from Miami. He has gotten at least one hit in six of seven games and has played a very good third base after never playing third base previously in his MLB career. He has a .300 average with four homers, eight RBI and two steals in the seven games. It makes sense having him hit back-to-back in the lineup with Volpe since those two have a lot of speed.
Gleyber Torres was the only Yankee besides Soto to have a multi hit game. He was 2–5 as the leadoff hitter. Alex Verdugo had been the leadoff hitter but he got the game off. If you take away the three-game series against the Red Sox, Verdugo is 7–62 in his last 16 games. He has 13 strikeouts in those 16 games.
With this series win, the Yankees are now 7–6 against the Blue Jays this season with no more games to play against Toronto. Their division record is now 22–23, which is just one game above .500. They are 17–2 against the AL Central, 12–6 against the AL West and 16–15 in inter league games. Before playing Cleveland August 20–22, each of the Yankees’ next five series will be against teams who are under .500. The Angels are 49–63, the Rangers are 53–59 after winning the World Series last season, the inept White Sox are 60 games under .500 and the Tigers are 53–60.
Manager Aaron Boone and hitting coach James Rowson were both thrown out of the game in the same at-bat in the seventh inning for arguing balls and strikes. It was the sixth ejection this season for Boone, most in the majors, and the 39th of his managing career. He has led the big leagues in that category each of the last four seasons. The umpire had a short leash on Boone.
“I was going a little bit early at Tripp,” Boone said. “Really didn’t say much other than, `That’s down.’ But he told me four innings ago, ‘That’s enough.’”
