The series finale between the Yankees and Blue Jays was one of the sloppiest of the season, as four New York errors led to an 8-4 loss on Wednesday and a series loss. Not to mention the Yankees have fallen even further behind Toronto in the AL East race because of it.
It was an odd game. The Yankees actually played great defense in the early innings, thanks to a running grab by Trent Grisham and a diving stop and throw from Jazz Chisholm Jr., but the book on the Yankees has been out since last year's World Series, and it hasn't changed much since. Put the ball in play, and teams can take advantage of Yankee errors, and that's exactly what the Blue Jays did.
And just like the ill-fated fifth inning in the 2024 World Series, the same happened on Wednesday.
Starter Max Fried walked Davis Schneider and George Springer with one out and the score tied 2-2 in the fifth. A wild pitch put runners at second and third for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to hit a chopper down the third base line. Fried, a Gold Glove pitcher, got a good jump off the mound and fielded the ball but spun around and made an inaccurate throw that got past catcher J.C. Escarra. Two runners would score on the Fried error.
"Went for it, thought I might have been closer to the plate," Fried said of the play. "I was getting close to the line and if I kept going, I’m going to throw at [the runner] and tried to throw it around him. Just not a good throw."
Fried was more frustrated with the walks in that inning and said that can't happen, especially with the game tied.
Luckily for the Yankees, Aaron Judge's two-run blast, which came after a Guerrero error, got the game even again in the sixth inning. But in the bottom of the inning, more errors and miscues occurred.
Ernie Clement hit a leadoff triple after Cody Bellinger lost the fly ball in the sky, setting up the go-ahead double from Myles Straw. Straw then scored with two outs when Will Wagner hit a grounder to first baseman Ben Rice, who booted what surely would have been the final out of the inning.
"Today was a little shaky," Bellinger said of the defense. "For me, the fly ball that I missed kinda started it all. We gotta play a little better. I got confidence in this group of guys. The team over there is a good team. They are playing good baseball. Ultimately, they are capitalizing on a lot of mistakes."
The Yankees would make two more errors that wouldn't come back to bite them, but it was an overall ugly game.
"Just not good enough [defensively]," manager Aaron Boone said after the game. "I feel we have a very good defensive club, but the seven games we played up here, whether it’s through error or not making a play we have to make, it’s cost us in these two series up here, where it’s really hurt. We have to tighten it up, confident we will. We have good defenders here, but tonight was obviously a rough night for us."
In seven games playing in Toronto, the Yankees are 1-6, but more alarming are the errors. The Yankees have committed 11 errors in seven games at Rogers Centre and the Blue Jays took full advantage.
When asked about why the defense has been so poor in Toronto, Boone didn't really have an answer. He briefly mentioned the turf but didn't want to use it as an excuse. He felt the team played well defensively in their series win in Atlanta this past weekend, so he chokes it up to "just two bad series." Judge also didn't have an answer about the Toronto factor when he was asked.
"It’s tough to say. We haven’t been playing that well on defense. We have a lot of things we have to clean up," he said. "We go into this off day, refocus and tighten up on defense. Pitchers are pitching well enough to keep us in games so the offense can do its thing. We give any good team extra outs; it’s not going to work out for us."
"Defense is about work, putting the work in. That’s what we’ll continue to do," Boone said of how the Yankees can improve the defense midseason. "We have good defenders. We have really good defenders. It’s just something that…defense is a game of under control and calm. The last thing I want to do is play tight and play to not make a mistake. Gotta keep working. Keep working on our fundamentals day in and day out and it’ll continue to get better. And a lot of the season, the defense has been very good. It’s these two series where it’s not been good. We lost games to them in big part because we’ve given them outs."
Judge was asked if he felt the team was playing "tight," and the captain disagreed with the notion, pointing to the team's experience, especially for those who were there for the World Series run.
"We’re battle-tested. We never feel like any guy in here is getting tight or nervous," he said. "You gotta play aggressive…make some plays. Hasn’t gone our way the last couple of nights, but that’s all stuff we have to clean up. It’s in our control. We’ll take care of it."
The Yankees won't have much time to "take care of it." After an off day on Thursday, they'll start a stretch of 13 games in 13 days beginning by hosting the Phillies this weekend.
And while there's still more than two months to go, with a trade deadline upcoming, the Yankees are confident they can get on a hot streak and set themselves up for a playoff berth and run.
"It’s coming. We haven’t had our hot streak yet," Judge said with a smile. "We’re going to and when it does, watch out."
