The Yankees tied the weekend series in Toronto

The Yankees split their four game series two games apiece in Toronto at Rogers Centre against the Blue Jays over the weekend. Since the Yankees won the series finale in convincing fashion 8–1 and the Orioles lost their series finale to the Rangers at Camden Yards on Sunday 11–2, the Yankees are now tied with the Orioles for first place in the AL East.

The Yankees showed signs off improving in this series since they had lost each of their previous four series and then split this series against the Blue Jays, who are in last place in the AL East but have more talent than a typical last place team. The Yankees tied this series in Toronto after losing two out of three games to the Blue Jays in the middle of April, which was their first series against the Blue Jays this season.

In the Yankees two wins against the Blue Jays in this series they outscored Toronto 24–6 but in their two losses they were outscored 18–5. On Friday, the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 16–5 for their seventh time scoring in double digits this season. They only scored in double digits nine times all of last season. All of those nine games came before the All-Star break in 2023.

In the 16–5 win, the Yankees bullpen threw 5.2 innings and allowed two earned runs, no walks and had four strikeouts. Michael Tonkin and Luke Weaver each allowed a solo homer in relief of Marcus Stroman, who allowed three earned runs in 4.1 innings. Stroman had a 5.13 ERA in his five starts in June after having an outstanding 1.67 ERA in his six starts in May, which included allowed just seven earned runs and 14 walks in 37.2 innings pitched.

The Yankees scored 16 runs on Friday after scoring just 12 runs in their previous four games combined. The one through three hitters in the lineup combined to go 7–15 with eight runs scored and five RBI and the five and six hitters, Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo, combined to go 4–9 with five RBI and three runs scored. The Yankees went a very impressive 9–12 with runners in scoring position. Juan Soto hit a 3-run homers and Torres hit a 2-run homer in this game.

On Saturday, the Yankees lost 9–3 and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had 6 RBI, which means he accounted for two thirds of Toronto’s runs. Guerrero Jr. was 3–5 with a two-run homer in the first inning, a 3-run double in the sixth inning and an RBI single in the eighth inning to score former Yankee Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Kiner Falefa has a .292 average and a 117 OPS+ in 92 games this season after having a much lower .253 average and an 81 OPS+ in the previous two seasons with the Yankees. Kiner-Falefa went 4–5 with three runs scored in this game and was 7–11 with seven runs scored in the first three games of the series.

It is possible that the Yankees will trade for Guerrero Jr., who plays first base and third base, before the trade deadline. He would definitely be an upgrade at third base since he has 13 homers, 50 RBI, a .297 average and a 141 OPS+ in 83 game this season. He had a .318 average with a great .961 OPS, eight homers, seven doubles and 25 RBI in June and is currently on a 7-game hitting streak with six multi-hit games and is 15–31 with five doubles, five homers and 19 RBI in those seven games.

Nestor Cortes struggled in this game allowing three earned runs, seven hits and one walk in 4.1 innings. He has also been worse recently like Stroman since Cortes had a 3.97 ERA in his six starts in June after having a 2.48 ERA in his five starts in May. Cortes allowed at least three runs in four of his six starts in June after allowing at least three runs in one of his five starts in the month of May.

Cortes continued is trend of pitching very well at home and not pitching well in road games this season. It is hard to believe how much his starts at Yankee Stadium contrast from his starts away from The Bronx. He has a ERA overall in 18 starts but has a 5.63 ERA with nine homers allowed and very high .295 opponent batting average in his 46.1 innings pitched in away games but a 1.84 ERA with six homers allowed and a .195 opponent batting average in 58.2 innings pitched at Yankee Stadium this season.

Phil Bickford allowed five earned runs with four hits and a walk while only recording two outs in the sixth inning. He allowed three consecutive hits to start the sixth inning and he left the game after allowing Kiner-Falefa’s RBI single that made the score 5–1 Blue Jays. Bickford was not surprisingly released after Saturday’s game. In his five games with the Yankees he had a 14.40 ERA in five innings after allowing eight earned runs in 3.1 innings in his previous three games. The Yankees selected the contract of LHP Josh Maciejewski from Triple-A Scranton and designated Bickford for assignment. The Yankees will need to trade for a few high leverage swing and miss relief pitchers before the trade deadline.

Chris Bassitt had a 1.00 ERA in his first four starts against the Yankees coming into Saturday. Bassitt dominated the Yankees once again as he did not allow an earned run in 6.0 innings pitched while allowing six hits and striking out eight batters.

Ben Rice had a double in third on Saturday after his first seven hits with Yankees were singles. DJ LeMahieu, who went 0–3 in this game, hit his first extra base hit on Friday in his 89th plate appearance. Rice went 3–7 in the last two games of the series and has a solid .273 average (9–33) in his 11 games with the Yankees with an impressive .375 OBP and two extra base hits in his last two games after not having an extra base hit in his first nine games. He has been much more productive than Anthony Rizzo.

Aaron Judge had an RBI single to get the Yankees on the scoreboard in the third inning and then Austin Wells hit a two run homer in the ninth inning. Wells is 3–8 in his last two games, including Sunday’s series finale, after going 3–18 in his previous nine games. The Yankees were just 1–6 with runners in scoring position in Saturday’s loss.

In the series finale, the Yankee bounced back well from Saturday’s loss and beat the Blue Jays by seven runs, 8–1, after a very good and encouraging start by Gerrit Cole, a good performance by the bullpen and the offense had 12 hits with six extra base hits.

Cole pitched five innings while allowing just one earned run, three hits and one walk. He had six strikeouts and threw a first pitch strike to 15 of the 20 batters he faced. This was good improvement from his second start of the season last week when the 2023 Cy Young winner allowed six earned runs with four homers, four walks and seven hits in 4.0 innings pitched. Cole gave up at least four homers and recorded no strikeouts for just the second time in his 302 career starts (he now has made 303 starts).

“Disappointing — I didn’t really give us a good chance to win tonight,” Cole said after last week’s start against the Mets. “I didn’t execute enough good pitches, Just kind of dug us a hole.”

“Another big step,” Aaron Boone said about Cole in the series finale in which he allowed just one run. “I thought his energy and mound presence was excellent. That was Gerrit Cole out there today.”

Cole threw a season-high 90 pitches, 61 for strikes, in his third start this year since returning from an elbow injury. Cole was pleased with his performance in Toronto since he was able to locate his pitches much better than in his second start of his season.

“I thought it was a good blend of stuff and command,” Cole said. “I pitched pretty smart for the most part. It was a good day.”

Cole struck out Spencer Horwitz on a 96 mph fastball to end the 5th inning.

George Springer hit very well in this series going 7–11 with two homers, two doubles and eight RBI in the four games. Springer, who is from Connecticut, hit into a 6–4–3 inning ending double play in the 3rd inning.

Anthony Volpe struck out in his first three at-bats against Kevin Gausman, who was an All-Star and finished 3rd in Cy Young voting last season but has a 4.75 ERA in 17 starts this season. Juan Soto was 7–13 with 10 walks going into his 4th inning at-bat in his career against Gausman. Soto walked in the fourth inning and overall went 1–3 with an RBI, a run scored and two walks in this game. Soto is 3–7 in his last two games after going 3–21 in his previous seven games played. However, he did have nine walks in those seven games played.

LeMahieu went 2–5 with a double and two RBI in this game. It is a real positive sign that he has been improving recently after not having any extra base hits in his first 23 games of his season. In his last three games he has two doubles after not having any doubles, triples or homers in his first 23 games. LeMahieu is 4–16 in his last four games after going 4–34 in his previous 11 games.

LeMahieu hit an RBI double to left center to make the score 5–1. He was behind 0–2 in the count. If LeMahieu continues to improve at the plate the Yankees might not need to trade for an impact third baseman before the trade deadline.

Gleyber Torres had has third consecutive multi hit game on Sunday and was 6–13 in those three games. He looks like a completely different hitter recently since his two game benching. He was 2–29 in his previous nine games before this 3-game stretch.

Trent Grisham had a hard hit two RBI double off of the wall in right center on a ball down the middle to make the score 7–1 in the fifth inning. He initially thought it was a 3-run homer but was easily able to get to second for the double. Grisham is 6–18 in his last seven games after going 4–40 in his previous 18 games. He has 12 hits this season in 78 at-bats and an impressive five of those hits have been homers.

Aaron Judge hit his league leading 31st homer of the season in the 1st inning. Judge won AL Player of the Month in June after also winning it in May. He is first player to win back-to-back since Don Mattingly in 1985. Judge is ahead of his homer pace from 2022 season. Judge was 2–4 overall in this game and went 7–12 with five RBI in the last three games of the Toronto series.

Judge had a very impressive 37 RBI in the month of June (in 25 games). He tied Mattingly (September, 1985) and Bill Skowron (July, 1956) for most RBI in a month by a Yankee since the 1947 season. Judge has 25 homers, 64 RBI and 17 doubles in his last 50 games played going back to May 4.

Judge is the first player to have an OPS greater than 1.300 in consecutive months (min. 100 PA) since Barry Bonds in Aug-Sept 2004. Judge had a 1.397 OPS in May and a 1.378 OPS in June.

Judge is now 7th in Yankees history in home runs with 288 and only trails Alex Rodriguez, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. Judge needs 53 more homers to tie Rodriguez, who was his teammate with the Yankees for many seasons and is now his teammate on the Fox MLB studio show. He will likely tie A-Rod in the middle of next season.

Judge has had the best season in the American League and is on track to winning his second MVP in three seasons and having at least 55 homers for the second time in three seasons. Soto has had one of the top five seasons so far in the AL since he is fifth in the league in homers, third in RBI, fifth in WAR, first in OBP, sixth in average and second in OPS.

This season Judge has 31 homers and 82 RBI in 84 games. In 2021 when Freddie Freeman finished ninth in MVP voting, he had 31 homers and 83 RBI in 159 games.

Judge has 31 homers, 82 RBI and a 217 OPS+ in 84 games this season. Bryce Harper had 35 homers, 84 RBI and a 179 OPS+ in 141 games when he won NL MVP in 2021. Judge currently leads MLB in homers, RBI, total bases, OPS and SLG% and is second in OBP and WAR and is third in average.

It’s a good sign that LeMahieu and Torres both improved at the plate during the Blue Jays series.

The Yankees have the day off on Monday before starting a series against the Reds at Yankee Stadium. The Reds are six games below .500.