The Yankees blew a 5-run lead to the Blue Jays on Sunday as Toronto beat the Bronx Bombers 10–9 on Father’s Day to avoid the series sweep.
The game started off promising for the Yankees, when Aaron Judge walked and a visibly-angry Josh Donaldson was hit by a pitch to bring a 2nd runner on base — but Donaldson took an overly-long lead off the base, and Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk picked him off after a pitch from lefty Yusei Kikuchi to end the inning.
Their 1st inning misfortunes continued when Toronto took to the batter’s box, beginning with a 4-pitch walk from Louis Servino, followed by a laser from Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. that sailed over the left field fence to put the team up 2–0.
Servino subsequently walked a 2nd batter in the inning, before getting back to the dugout before suffering any more early-game damage.
The Bronx Bombers responded quickly in the next inning, when the red-hot Gleyber Torres drove an 86 mph slider over the center field wall for a solo homer.
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Things then became fairly testy between the 2 divisional rivals, as Kikuchi hit Aaron Hicks to plunk his 2nd batter of the game in as many innings — angering the Yankee bench, and increasing the tensions for the remainder of the contest. Hicks would later be caught stealing on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play to end the inning.
After being the first hit batter, Donaldson would get his revenge on Kikuchi in the 3rd inning with a bomb to center field for a 2-run homer that put New York in the lead 3–2.
Toronto skipper Charlie Montoyo pulled the erratic Kikuchi after the 4th inning, and brought in submarine pitcher Adam Cimber — though that didn’t stop the Blue Jays’ bleeding, as the Bronx Bombers tacked on another 3 runs in top of the 5th inning off a pair of doubles from Judge and Torres.
Their onslaught continued again in the 6th inning, off a pair of homers from Marwin González and Kyle Higashioka — bringing them to 8 runs through two-thirds of the contest.
The Blue Jays next run came on a solo shot in the 5th inning from George Springer off Servino, who would finish his night in the bottom of the 6th after tossing 100 pitches, with 9 strikeouts, 4 walks and 3 hits allowed.
That’s when things began to turn around for the Blue Jays, as Miguel Castro would take over on the mound for the Yanks with 2 man on and walked the bases loaded — before giving up a grand slam to Lourdes Gurriel Jr, making the contest 8–7 in favor of the Yanks.
That got the Father’s Day crowd across the border back into the game, after they’d been relatively quiet in the preceding innings.
And their hopes were answered in the 7th inning, when Teoscar Hernández sent a ball over the centerfield fence to score 3 runs, and put the Blue Jays up 10–8.
Anthony Rizzo would lead a Yankee attempt at yet another lead change, when he homered in the top of the 8th — but Toronto would hold on, and give the Yankees their first loss in the past 10 games.
The loss brings the Yankees to a league-best 49–17 record, and puts them ahead 12 games in the AL East, over the second-place Toronto team. The Bronx Bombers now boast a season 8–4 record against the Blue Jays.
The team will now head to Florida for a series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night.
