For the second day in a row, the Blue Jays and Yankees took things down to the wire, and for the second time, a Yankees ninth-inning home run settled it. Only this time, New York didn't stop at the one homer they got from Paul Goldschmidt in Saturday's victory.
First, Ben Rice turned a tie ball game into another Yankees' lead with a no-doubt two-run shot to deep right, and then Jose Caballero provided some added cushion with a three-run shot to blow the game open off reliever Tommy Nance. The 8-3 win gave the Yankees the series as Toronto slipped to 8-6-1 in home series.
Fisher Takes the Loss
With closer Louis Varland having pitched the two previous games and having logged a heavy workload to date, the start of the ninth inning with the game tied went to young right-hander Braydon Fisher. Fisher didn't help his own cause when he threw wildly to first on an excuse-me single chopper down the third base line that allowed Goldschmidt to take second with none out. Rice made the oopsie redundant with his 19th homer of the year. Fisher took the loss to fall to 2-2 while Camilo Doval, with a clean eighth, picked up his third win against no losses.
Game Recap
The Jays got through the first four innings tied at 2-2, which had to be considered advantage Toronto as the Yankees had a decided edge between the starting pitchers in this one with Will Warren coming in with seven wins and a sub-four ERA, while the Jays countered with Patrick Corbin, who has been a bit of a saviour for the pitching-strapped Jays, but still began the day just 2-3 with a 4.55 ERA.
Corbin blinked first, giving up a pair in the second to the bottom of the Yankees order as Max Schuemann, Anthony Volpe and catcher Ali Sanchez strung together three hits with Volpe's single surrounded by doubles from the other two giving the visitors an early lead. The Jays' issues cashing in baserunners continued as they loaded the bases in the second but came up empty. They did scratch out a run in the third as Nathan Lukes led off with a single and eventually scored on Kazuma Okamoto's infield single. Toronto got another in the fourth as Ernie Clement came in to score on a Lukes single.
The Yankees re-took the lead in the sixth with the bottom of the order again doing the bulk of the work. Jazz Chisolm Jr. got the inning started with a pinch-hit walk, stole second and took third on a groundout to the right side. But a slick fielding play by reliever Spencer Miles got Chisholm caught in a rundown between home and third where the Yankees infielder was eventually tagged. Chisholm did extend the rundown long enough for Schuemann to get all the way to second from where he scored on a Volpe single for a 3-2 lead.
Jays Manager Ejected
Jays manager John Schneider was ejected from the game in the eighth as he took issue with a balk call against reliever Jeff Hoffman that again got Chisolm to third base. Hoffman eventually stranded Chisholm there, but not before his manager got the hook for the second time this season and 14th time in his career.
Lost in the Yankees late-game heroics was a solid day at the plate for recently recalled infielder/outfielder Davis Schneider. Schneider had the game-tying home run in the sixth as well as a single and a walk in four plate appearances. The popular Schneider has continued to get on base via the walk but has been struggling to put together many hits this season.
