Yankees blow lead to lose Toronto thriller 2-3, Judge goes homerless
John Allen
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New York Yankees 2, Toronto Blue Jays 3
TORONTO — The New York Yankees lost a 2-0 early lead and fell 2-3 to the Toronto Blue Jays in the 10th inning on Monday night. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s RBI single ended their seven-game winning streak while Aaron Judge remained without his 61st homer for the sixth straight game.
With 60 home runs, Judge was one short of Roger Maris’ American League record before the game began. He scored the game’s first run against the Blue Jays when Gleyber Torres hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning.
After being met with a mixture of cheers and boos from the crowd of 34,307 at Rogers Center before his first at-bat, Judge started the game with a sharp single to right field that had an exit velocity of 112.9 miles per hour. After Rizzo doubled Judge, Judge advanced to third, and Torres then drove him in with a fly ball to right field.
The Yankees slugger then walked in the third inning before being caught in a double play and out of the game. In the sixth, Judge struck out looking, and in the eighth, he went down swinging.
Judge hasn’t scored a home run, his 61st this season, since September 20.
Their loss to the Toronto Blue Jays brought an end to the winning streak for the Yankees at seven games.
Judge started the game with a single, then proceeded to strike out twice and walk twice. If the Yankees had won, they would have ensured themselves the first place in their division.
Judge hasn’t hit a home run in six games. He will try again on Tuesday night to tie Maris’s AL record of 61 home runs, which was set in 1961, when the Yankees will play the second game of the series in Toronto. Judge’s batting average stayed at .314, and he started the day in the lead for all three categories of the Triple Crown.
Cavan Biggio scored when Guerrero hit a single with two outs off Clarke Schmidt. The Toronto Blue Jays won their third straight game and now have a lead of 2 1/2 games over Tampa Bay in the AL wild-card race.
In the 10th inning, with runners on first and second and two outs, Blue Jays’ interim manager John Schneider took out right-handed pitcher Anthony Bass and put in left-handed pitcher Tim Mayza (8-0) to face Judge. Toronto walked Judge on purpose so that the bases would be full for Anthony Rizzo, who hits left-handed and grounded out.
After making his 22nd start at DH on Sunday, Judge went back to right field and again left history on deck. Since hitting his 60th home run against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, which started a comeback in the ninth inning, the New York slugger has 5 for 18, which comprised seven walks. Since then, his figures also include three doubles and eight strikeouts.
In the bottom of the 10th, Bichette of the Toronto Blue Jays hit a deep drive that Judge caught well. He then threw to second to stop Biggio from moving forward.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit his fourth home run with two outs in the second. This made the score 2-0.
Right-hander Luis Severino made his second start for the Yankees against the Blue Jays after coming off the injured list. In four innings, he gave up two runs and three hits. Severino made 76 pitches, and 49 of them were strikes. He got four strikeouts and three walks.
Before Bichette’s single to start the fourth, Severino didn’t let anyone get a hit. The next batter, Guerrero, hit a ground ball to short that could have turned into a double play, but Kiner-Falefa dropped the ball and threw late to first. Alejandro Kirk walked to put runners on first and second, and then Teoscar Hernández hit a double off the top of the center field wall.
Rizzo and Torres both hit singles with one out in the sixth, but Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman got Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stanton to strike out.
In 6 1/3 innings, Gausman gave up two runs and six hits. He got seven strikeouts, giving him 200 for the second straight season. He also walked one batter.
In the seventh inning, the Blue Jays had runners on first and second with one out when Jonathan Loaisiga entered the game and struck out George Springer before getting Bichette to ground out.
UP NEXT
Jameson Taillon (13-5, 3.90 ERA) will make the start for the Yankees on Tuesday against Jose Berrios for the Blue Jays (11-6, 5.27 ERA).
What do you think led to the Yankees losing to the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday?