The Toronto Blue Jays came to Yankee Stadium hungry for wins, and that’s what they did. The Yankees’ pesky AL East rivals took two of three in a weekend series and handed the Bronx Bombers their first series loss of the season.
As it stands, both teams are 13-9 and tied for third in the AL East, six games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays. This time around, the Blue Jays were the better-hitting team and had no issue matching the Yankees’ arms. Ten games remain between the two division rivals and these three didn’t really cost the Yankees anything.
Next time, however, they might.
Some takeaways:
Daddy Vlady: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is a thorn in the Yankees’ side, largely running his mouth because of some invented beef with the team he calls “personal,” but I digress. Guerrero won the first round this weekend and was a factor in all three games, batting .363 with two home runs and four RBI.
Guerrero, still just 24, is a .293 lifetime hitter against the Yankees, including 15 home runs. He has two years of arbitration left and all signs point to him signing an extension to stay in Toronto. If the Yankees want to keep Toronto off of the AL East’s throne, they’ll need to do a better job getting Guerrero out.
Power outage. The Yankees’ pitching staff is enough to keep the team competitive, even with Luis Severino and Carlos Rodon still injured. Clarke Schmidt being untouchable for five innings on Sunday despite his rough start to the season proves that. The same goes for Domingo German.
The issue, rather, is that the Yankees lineup is banged up to the point where even the usual heavy hitters aren’t producing. Aaron Judge is 5 for his last 37 (.135), and his batting average has dipped to .244. It could just be fatigue from not missing a game all season but the YES broadcast said as much on Sunday. The Yankees are so injured that there’s little room for the starters to get days off.
Gleyber Torres is batting .150 since April 11 after his torrid start. There’s no clear timetable for either Giancarlo Stanton or Josh Donaldson’s respective returns. Harrison Bader could boost things once he’s back, but that’s not for at least a couple of weeks. The Yankees need to figure out how to score runs without their big bats, and fast.
Are Blue Jays the new Red Sox? The 2009 Yankees are the most recent championship team to reference and fans will recall New York struggled with a rival that year too. Except it wasn’t the Blue Jays, but rather the hated Red Sox. Boston won the first eight of 18 total matchups between both teams before the Yankees eventually tied the series.
All this to say there’s plenty of baseball left to be played. The Yankees can hope for better results when they face the Jays again next month. It doesn’t matter that divisional play is over and playoff tiebreakers aren’t a thing anymore. Ten games remaining is plenty of time for the Yankees to change their approach.
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