After the Toronto Blue Jays snapped the New York Yankees’ five-game winning streak in yesterday’s matchup, New York would respond by putting up eight runs of their own, six via the long ball.
Six of those runs came off Toronto starting pitcher José Berríos, as the RHP has been struggling lately. Berríos had allowed four or more earned runs in three of his last five games while giving up five home runs over that span.
Aaron Judge, the leader for home runs in Major League Baseball, blasted a two-run shot to put New York up 2-1. Judge has now hit fourty-one home runs on the year while leading MLB in OPS (1.154).
New York plated two more runs on a blast from Trent Grisham in the fourth inning. Grisham, known for his defence, has collected three hits (five total) in his last six games played.
Berríos hung a slurve to Anthony Volpe in the fifth, as the Yankees were up by 5. Volpe is on a hot streak, batting .365, with five home runs over his last 15 games.
New York scored another two runs, beating the Blue Jays 8-3 for their sixth win out of their last seven games.
Berríos, in 5.0 innings, gave up seven hits, six earned runs, and walked two. Berríos ERA now sits at 4.11, jumping from a 2.80 ERA in two months.
The Yankees offence arguably is the best in baseball, leading MLB in runs this year (579), on-base percentage (.334), and on-base plus slugging (.773).
Despite the final score, Toronto took the lead early in the game on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. bomb. Guerrero Jr.’s hit streak extended to 16 games with the blast, as the first baseman collected another three hits in the game, raising his OPS to .929.
Guerrero Jr. was the only Blue Jay to collect a hit off Yankees SP Carlos Rodón. In 5.1 innings, Rodón struck out eight batters, allowing five total base runners. Rodón let two runners on base before being taken out of the game in the fifth inning. Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk would drive in the runs from a single.
Toronto would make the ninth inning interesting, reaching base three times off newly acquired Yankee Mark Leiter Jr. New York was forced to bring in Clay Homes, as Homes struck out George Springer to end the game.
Springer had also got rung up on a pitch in the seventh inning that looked below the strike zone. The outfielder showed his displeasure to home plate umpire Laz Díaz before returning to the dugout. Toronto SP Kevin Gausman wasn’t thrilled with Díaz’s strike zone and got ejected from the dugout between innings.
Toronto is 7-8 since the All-Star break, losing four out of their last six games. The Blue Jays are hoping SP Yariel Rodriguez can give them a long outing as their bullpen continues to surrender runs (two runs allowed in 3.0 innings today).
