TORONTO – This was a game the Blue Jays should have won.
Granted, the Yankees are a formidable team, and sweeps are hard at this level. But if your ace rebounds, your left fielder hits two home runs and you take a lead into the ninth inning, that’s a game you should win.
Instead, a late Yankees rally erased a Blue Jays lead and prevented what would have been the first Toronto sweep of the season. On a day at least two of the Blue Jays’ top relievers were unavailable, Genesis Cabrera, Erik Swanson and Tim Mayza each gave up big hits on the way to a 6-4 Yankees win.
Yimi Garcia had worked the first two games of the series making him unavailable, and the Blue Jays are opting to be careful with closer Jordan Romano, who made his season debut Tuesday night. It’s less clear why Chad Green wasn’t available, as he last pitched Monday, when he threw 17 pitches.
With those three relievers seemingly unavailable, the Blue Jays had Cabrera on the mound in the eighth inning, when he gave up a solo home run to Juan Soto. Then in the ninth, with the Blue Jays still up two, Swanson made his season debut and allowed a loud home run to Giancarlo Stanton before allowing hits to Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo.
It was at that point that the Blue Jays turned to Mayza, who allowed a pinch-hit single to Jose Trevino to tie the game then a two-run single by Aaron Judge to give New York the lead. At no point did Romano, Garcia or Green warm up.
As a result, the Blue Jays wasted a strong effort from starter Kevin Gausman and a two-home run game from Daulton Varsho.
The first of the homers came against longtime Blue Jay Marcus Stroman but the second was more notable, as it came against Caleb Ferguson, a left-handed pitcher – a first for the left-handed hitting Varsho in a Blue Jays uniform.
This version of Varsho looks like an all-star calibre player, and the production comes at an opportune time. As a team, the Blue Jays struggled to find their power stroke, with zero homers in the first two games against New York on just 12 total hits.
Going into the game, the matchup of Stroman and Kevin Gausman was an intriguing one, and it didn’t disappoint.
After faltering against the Rockies in his previous start, Gausman rebounded with five innings of one-run ball Wednesday. His velocity was up, with an average fastball of 94.8 m.p.h. and a max velocity of 97.9 m.p.h. plus harder splitters and sliders, too.
An extended first inning ate into his pitch count, but the only real damage he allowed was a Soto RBI double that caromed off the centre field wall in the fifth inning. All told, the right-hander allowed four hits and three walks while striking out six – a significant step forward.
And consider this when assessing Gausman’s outing: not only do the Yankees have MVP-calibre hitters like Soto and Judge, they’re also among the best in MLB at game planning. Put simply, not all teams are good at helping their pitchers keep hitters off-balance, or helping their hitters anticipate what’s likely coming. The Yankees are elite at it.
That was certainly the case Wednesday, when New York’s hitters overmatched Blue Jays pitchers when it counted most.
