TORONTO — The Yankees held a lead, a strike away from escaping the inning clean. All they had to do was hold the ball.
They did not. On a night when the pitching again did its job, a single reckless decision in the sixth inning undid everything, and it came from a player who already had the out in front of him.
The ball belonged in Luis Garcia Jr.‘s glove. Instead, the first baseman flung it across the diamond into trouble, and the Yankees watched a 1-0 lead dissolve in seconds.
By the end of the frame, they trailed. By the end of the night, they lost 3-1 to the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, dropping the series opener and wasting six strong innings from Gerrit Cole.
The defeat kept the Yankees at 68-54, still 6 1/2 games behind the AL East-leading Rays and three games ahead of the third-place Boston Red Sox. It was the kind of self-inflicted loss a team chasing a division cannot keep absorbing.
The overthrow that changed the game
The Yankees led 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth. Cole had a runner on and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. aboard when George Springer chopped a grounder to third baseman Ryan McMahon.
McMahon stepped on the bag for the force, then threw across the diamond to try for an inning-ending double play. His throw skipped in low, and Garcia could not scoop it. His glove came off in the attempt.
That miscue was survivable. What came next was not. The Yankees first baseman grabbed the loose ball, spun and fired to third base at a sprinting Guerrero, even though no play was there to be made.
The throw bounded away. Guerrero collided with rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. near the bag, and third-base umpire Brock Ballou signaled obstruction on Lombard. Guerrero scampered home to tie the game, and the collision left him dazed, his helmet knocked loose.
One pitch later, Alejandro Kirk doubled to left to score Springer, and Toronto led 2-1. Two Yankees throwing errors, on McMahon and Garcia, had turned a New York lead into a deficit without the Blue Jays hitting a ball hard.
Garcia, McMahon and Boone dissect the damage
Garcia did not hide from the moment afterward. He pointed to his inability to make an accurate throw as the play that decided the game, even as some questioned whether Guerrero could have been retired at all.
“It’s a key play of the game right there,” Garcia said through his interpreter.
Manager Aaron Boone was blunt about the mental error. He said the second throw should never have left Garcia’s hand once the first baseman turned and saw the play in front of him.
“I think [Garcia] just got overly aggressive with throwing to third there, especially with a two-out situation,” Boone said. “But when his back got to the play, when he turned around and got his sightline again … he obviously should have held it.”
McMahon put the original throw on himself, saying he rushed it to beat the speedy Springer and left Garcia in a difficult spot.
“Springer’s running pretty good and I felt like I had to throw it as soon as I stepped on the bag,” McMahon said. “Just didn’t get enough on it to get it all the way over there. Put Luis in a tough spot over there.”
Cole shortchanged as the bats stay silent
The mess spoiled a strong outing from the Yankees ace, who was brilliant through five scoreless innings before the sixth unraveled around him. He allowed two runs, only one earned, on five hits over six innings, walking two and striking out five.
The loss dropped Cole to 6-6 and snapped his run of three straight winning starts. Kirk delivered the final blow off him with the go-ahead double, then added a solo home run off Bradley Hanner in the eighth for insurance.
The offense again gave Cole almost nothing. Trent Grisham provided the lone run, leading off the sixth with his 16th homer of the season off Shane Bieber, his fourth long ball in six games. It snapped a scoreless drought but stood as the Yankees’ only production.
New York managed five hits against Bieber, a former Cy Young Award winner who entered with a 5.48 ERA. Bieber (4-2) allowed one run over six innings. Louis Varland finished for his 27th save in 28 chances.
The pattern has defined the Yankees’ summer. They are 14-12 since the All-Star break, and in those 26 games they have scored two runs or fewer 14 times. The pitching has carried them, and Friday it was not enough.
Boone’s ejection and a familiar house of horrors
The Yankees manager did not last the night. He was controversially ejected in the top of the sixth by plate umpire Vic Carapazza after a called strike on Garcia, his fourth ejection of the season, which leads the American League.
Boone appeared to say little more than that he thought the pitch was low. He did not blame the umpire for the loss afterward, instead returning to the offense as the real problem.
“You’ve got to score,” Boone said. “Obviously continues to be a challenge for us.”
Rogers Centre remains a difficult venue for the Yankees, who struggled there throughout last season. Lombard also hurt them on the bases, getting caught in a rundown in the third after taking too wide a turn around second on a Grisham single.
The Yankees try to steady the series Saturday, sending Cam Schlittler and his 2.21 ERA against Blue Jays right-hander Braydon Fisher. They remain in a wild-card spot, but nights like this one, when the arms hold and the rest falls apart, are the ones testing their October hopes.
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