The New York Yankees took on the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday afternoon after losing their last two games to the Baltimore Orioles. Just a few days ago, the Yankees had a two-game lead over the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card, but they are now tied as the Seattle Mariners claw their way back from three games down. In fact, the Toronto Blue Jays are only 3.5 games behind the Yankees, and with plenty of baseball left to play, the Bombers can’t afford to be dropping any more games.
Good news and bad news for the New York Yankees:
There was plenty of bad news to go around after the Yankees’ loss on Monday by a score of 0-8. Toronto’s starting pitcher, Hyun Jin Ryu, lasted 6.0 innings and struck out six batters, allowing three hits. Jameson Taillon, on the other side of the mound, lasted 7.0 innings and gave up three hits, three earned runs and struck out five batters. However, it wasn’t until the ninth inning when relief pitcher of Brooks Kriske gave up five earned runs, including a Grand Slam, to give the Blue Jays a massive lead.
Unfortunately, the Bombers are on a three-game losing streak, two of which came against the worst team in baseball. As a whole, the unit produced just five hits on the afternoon, including 10 strikeouts. Leftfielder Joey Gallo recorded four strikeouts on four at-bats, and Aaron Judge hasn’t recorded a hit in four games. When the Yankees’ sluggers are cold, the entire team shuts down, which has become a serious issue with a lack of contact hitting.
Skipper Aaron Boone might have to consider injecting some of his contact-centric and elite base-running players into the lineup on occasion, including Andrew Velazquez and Greg Allan.
The only positive to take away from the loss was Taillon’s performance, as the Yankees should’ve given him far more run support. The Yankees will face off against Toronto on Tuesday evening at 7:05 PM, and luckily, they have ace Gerrit Cole on the mound to help get them on the right track. The Blue Jays will feature Steven Matz as their starter, who currently hosts a 3.80 ERA over 123 innings this season.
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