The Yankees’ best pitcher, Gerrit Cole, hit the dugout roof twice and yelled in frustration as the Toronto Blue Jays beat New York, 5-2, on Saturday. This was New York’s 15th loss in 19 games.
The Yankees, who are in first place in the AL East, have gone from 64-28 before the All-Star break to 9-20 since then. On July 8, they had a lead of 1512 games over second-place Toronto. Now, that lead is only seven games.
In his post-game news conference on Friday, New York manager Aaron Boone showed some anger about his team’s loss. On Saturday, when he talked about where his team is, he took it to a whole new level.
The last time the Yankees lost six straight series was in 1995, so this is the first time since then that they have done so. Toronto will try to make it four wins in a row on Sunday.
Cole (9-6) hadn’t given up a hit before the Blue Jays scored four times in the fifth. Andrew Benintendi couldn’t quite catch Alejandro Kirk’s two-run double, which ended the run. After walking a batter and dropping a ground ball, this happened.
Fans booed Cole at the end of the inning, and TV cameras caught the right-hander yelling and punching the bottom of the dugout roof with both hands.
Some of the 45,538 people in the crowd reacted the same way Cole did: the boos got louder after Toronto went ahead and got even louder after the last out.
Jackie Bradley’s two-run double won the game. Benintendi’s catch hit the wall and went past him. Bradley came through after Espinal doubled after missing on a two-strike pitch.
Raimel Tapia beat Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s throw on an infield hit, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. reached on Cole’s fielding error. Cole’s error let Guerrero beat the throw, and Toronto challenged.
Then, Kirk hit a double to left-center to give the Blue Jays a 4-1 lead. Benintendi, who was playing slightly in, ran back and tried to make a diving catch, but the ball got past his glove. Center fielder Estevan Florial caught it and threw out Guerrero to stop a third run from scoring.
The Blue Jays won their fourth straight game when Matt Chapman hit a solo home run in the ninth. Since the start of last season, Toronto is 13–6 in the Bronx.
In the second, Florial hit a single that scored a run, and in the eighth, Gleyber Torres hit a home run. The Yankees had nine hits, but they only scored once out of eight times when runners were in scoring position. In its last 11 games, New York has only scored 21 runs.
Before giving up four runs, Cole only let two runners reach base in the first four innings. Judge in right field and rookie third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera made some good defensive plays to help Cole out.
Judge made a running catch to stop Bo Bichette from getting a double in the second. His left shoulder hit the fence as he did it. Cabrera finished the play after his head made contact with the padding along the side wall after diving face first into the tarp in foul territory in order to catch Bradley’s popup.
In four innings, Mitch White, the starter for Toronto, gave up one run and seven hits. The win went to Adam Cimber (9-4), and Yimi Garcia made his first save.
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