TORONTO — The Yankees walked back into the building that haunted them a year ago, and the old problems came right along with them. A pair of early home runs dug a hole, a spirited comeback fell short, and a key bat limped off the field. By the end of Friday night, the Yankees had a familiar sinking feeling at Rogers Centre.
Ryan Weathers got battered early, the offense rallied too late, and the Blue Jays held on for an 8-5 win that snapped the Yankees’ four-game winning streak before a sold-out crowd.
Weathers digs an early hole
The trouble started immediately for the Yankees. Weathers, the only member of the pitching staff who was not with the team during last year’s miseries in Toronto, looked every bit as snake-bitten as his predecessors.
In the first inning, Ernie Clement reached on a swinging bunt and moved up on a wild pitch with two outs. Alejandro Kirk, back in the lineup after missing two months with a broken thumb, lined an RBI double just past center fielder Trent Grisham. Kazuma Okamoto followed by demolishing a down-and-in slider, sending a two-run shot into the upper deck in left for a 3-0 lead. Okamoto became just the 10th player in Blue Jays history to reach the 500 level, even though Statcast generously measured it at 423 feet.
The second inning brought more of the same. Weathers retired two quickly, then hit Andres Gimenez with a 96 mph sinker before George Springer crushed a changeup down the middle for another two-run homer and a 5-0 advantage. Notably, both homers came on 2-2 counts with two outs, a recurring theme in Weathers’s recent slide.
A pitcher searching for answers
Here is the heart of the Yankees’ problem on this night. Weathers has become homer-prone at the worst possible time, and he did not hide from it afterward.
The left-hander lasted just 4 1/3 innings, allowing a season-high six runs on six hits. He has now surrendered 15 home runs on the season, with seven coming over his last three starts, all losses. His ERA has ballooned to 4.36 after sitting at 3.14 earlier. Weathers offered a blunt assessment of what went wrong.
“Bad pitches,” Weathers said. “Just throwing bad pitches. That’s all I got.”
He took the struggles personally, frustrated by the early deficits he keeps creating for the Yankees.
“I’m a competitor, I want to win,” Weathers said. “I’m sick of putting us in a hole right now the last couple outings. It’s not a good feeling. You want to win ballgames as much as you can, so just got to get back to executing pitches better.”
The offense claws back
To their credit, the Yankees did not roll over against Blue Jays phenom Trey Yesavage, who had dominated them in the past. They chipped away at a pitcher who had thrown 11 1/3 shutout innings against them across two prior starts.
Trailing 5-0, the Yankees finally broke through in the fifth, capped by Cody Bellinger‘s two-run homer, his 10th of the year. Jose Caballero’s double in the sixth chased Yesavage, and Grisham’s two-run single pulled the Yankees within 7-5. Boone liked the at-bats his team strung together all night.
“We end up with 10 base-runners against him in five innings, you take your chances with that,” Boone said of the effort against Yesavage.
A costly injury and a final threat
The comeback came with a steep price for the Yankees. On the very hit that pulled them within two, Grisham pulled up lame.
One of the team’s hottest hitters, Grisham left in the sixth with right hamstring tightness after taking second on his two-run single, walking off gingerly as Max Schuemann came in to run for him. The injury could potentially land him on the injured list. The Yankees still had a chance to finish the rally, loading the bases with two outs in the seventh, but reliever Braydon Fisher got Ryan McMahon to fly out to end the threat. The relief corps also gave a bit back, as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Clement added run-scoring doubles later in the game.
A familiar house of horrors
The loss carried echoes of a painful recent history for the Yankees. Toronto has been a nightmare venue, with the team going 1-6 here in the 2025 regular season and 0-2 in the AL Division Series at Rogers Centre.
Kirk finished 3-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs in his return, continuing his role as a Yankees tormentor, while Louis Varland closed it out with a perfect ninth for his 12th save in 12 chances. The Yankees, who had been rolling, now must regroup and avoid letting one ugly night spiral.
They will turn to ace Cam Schlittler, who carries a sparkling 1.87 ERA, to even the series Saturday against Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman. For a club that had looked sharp without Aaron Judge, Friday was a sobering reminder that the road through Toronto remains a difficult one.
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