NEW YORK — The calendar still says May. The tension inside Yankee Stadium felt borrowed from October.
A rematch with the Toronto Blue Jays brought all of it back, the ghosts and the grudges from last fall’s American League Division Series exit in the Bronx. So when the Yankees finally got the home crowd back on its feet Monday night, the noise carried a different edge.
A 7-6 Yankees win over Toronto did, too.
The Yankees scored four runs in the seventh inning and survived another wobbly ninth from closer David Bednar. Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm Jr. each launched two-run homers off reliever Yariel Rodriguez to flip a 5-3 deficit. Then they hung on for dear life.
It was the opener of a seven-game homestand against two AL East rivals, with the first-place Tampa Bay Rays trailing the Blue Jays into town. The Yankees needed it. They came in having dropped seven of their last 10 games. They had just split a Subway Series with the Mets and watched Sunday’s finale slip through Bednar’s hands in the 10th.
A Subway Series hangover and a fast Yankees start
The Yankees set the tone in the first inning. Paul Goldschmidt jumped on a Patrick Corbin offering and drove his third leadoff homer of the year over the wall. Ben Rice followed with a booming double to left. The Yankees looked ready for a crooked number.
Then they stalled.
Corbin retired Aaron Judge, Bellinger and Amed Rosario in order. In the second, the Yankees loaded the bases with two outs. Rice grounded out. By the end of the second inning, the Yankees were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. The chances kept coming for the Yankees. The hits did not.
Ryan Weathers hands Toronto the lead
Yankees starter Ryan Weathers, working on two extra days of rest, looked sharp through three innings. The lefty struck out four straight Blue Jays at one point. He had taken a no-hitter into the seventh inning his last time out.
The fourth inning unraveled it.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Kazuma Okamoto opened with back-to-back singles. Weathers recorded the next two outs. Then Ernie Clement turned on an 0-2 changeup that ran in just above the ground and lifted it into the first row in left field. The three-run homer put Toronto up 3-1 over the Yankees and gave Clement his second statement swing in as many at-bats.
The Yankees answered.
Anthony Volpe doubled with one out in the bottom of the fourth, the ball nicking grass on a sliding attempt by Davis Schneider. Volpe stole third. He scored on a J.C. Escarra sacrifice fly, sliding his left hand in just before catcher Brandon Valenzuela could apply the tag. Max Schuemann then drew a walk, swiped second and moved up on Valenzuela’s second throwing error of the game. Goldschmidt drilled a Corbin pitch into right-center for an RBI double. Tie game, 3-3.
That feeling did not last.
George Springer led off the fifth with a solo shot to left off Weathers. It was his first homer since March 30. Toronto added another run in the sixth on singles from Lenyn Sosa and Daulton Varsho before Yankees reliever Paul Blackburn entered and gave up a run on a force-out. The Yankees were down 5-3 heading into the seventh.
Bellinger ties it, Chisholm wakes up the Bronx
Toronto turned to right-hander Yariel Rodriguez with two outs and nobody on in the seventh. Judge greeted him with a sharp single to left. Bellinger then drove a low splitter into the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center for his first home run since May 2 against Baltimore. Tie game.
Pinch-hitter Trent Grisham worked a walk and stole second. Up came Chisholm.
He fell behind, then sliced a slider down the left field line. He stood at the plate. He leaned. He willed it. The ball clanked off the foul pole. Chisholm flipped his bat, turned toward the Yankees dugout, pounded his chest and pulled a basketball jump shot motion as he rounded the bases. His fifth Yankees homer of the season made it 7-5.
Chisholm is on a tear. He has hit .527 over his last five games, a 10-for-19 stretch with three doubles. He has also been swinging one of Jose Caballero’s bats. Caballero and Giancarlo Stanton are both on the injured list. Both, in their own way, are still in this Yankees lineup.
David Bednar’s nervy ninth
Fernando Cruz worked a clean eighth for the Yankees. Then Bednar walked out for the ninth, a 7-5 lead in hand and another save to chase.
It got dicey fast.
Bednar walked Clement to start the inning. Pinch-hitter Jesus Sanchez doubled down the right field line to make it 7-6. Bednar struck out Valenzuela. He walked Yohendrick Pinango. The tying run reached second. The winning run reached first. The top of Toronto’s order was coming.
Then Bednar bore down. He struck out Springer. He got Guerrero to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end it. Save No. 11 in 13 chances.
His relief came through in the words. Bednar had blown Sunday’s game in extras. He spoke after this win about leaning on his teammates.
“It’s big-time,” Bednar said. “Ultimately, that’s what everyone wants in this room, trust the guys in here, and I have the ultimate trust in them. For them to feel that about me is big-time.”
Manager Aaron Boone backed him publicly. The Yankees skipper was asked about Bednar before first pitch and pointed to the makeup of his roster.
“We’ve got a lot of grownups in that room,” Boone said, “and I trust they know how to handle the highs and the lows in a lot of these individual cases.”
The Yankees standings picture
The Yankees moved to 29-19. They sit three games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and 7.5 games clear of the third-place Blue Jays at 21-26. Monday’s win pushed their record in one-run games to 4-10.
Chisholm framed the night in plainer terms. Last year’s playoff loss still sits with this group. Toronto, even at .447, still gets a charge out of these Yankees.
“Especially losing to them in the playoffs, we’ve got to have a different mindset when it comes to them,” Chisholm said. “Every time we see them, it’s like, we have that feeling, at least I do, for sure.”
Right-hander Will Warren (5-1, 3.42 ERA) starts Tuesday night for the Yankees against Toronto right-hander Dylan Cease (3-1, 2.41). First pitch at 7:05 p.m.
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