Sloppy 6th inning dooms Yankees in loss to Blue Jays, Trent Grisham exits with injury
Published in Baseball
A sloppy sixth inning doomed the New York Yankees on Monday night, paving the way for a 5-4, series-opening loss to the Blue Jays in Toronto.
The unfortunate frame began with a Davis Schneider double, which knocked Carlos Rodón out of the game. The Yankees, working with a 3-1 lead, called on Mark Leiter Jr., who allowed an infield single to Myles Straw. Anthony Volpe made a diving stop on the ball, only to throw it away as he tried to get Schneider at third. Straw, meanwhile, advanced to second.
Pinch-hitter Nathan Lukes then drove Schneider in with a single to make it a one-run game.
Leiter responded with a strikeout, but a wild pitch let Lukes reach second before Ernie Clement hit a soft single to Volpe. Once again, the shortstop made an ill-advised throw, firing to first. The speedy Clement beat the throw with ease as Straw scored the game-tying run and Lukes, the go-ahead run, advanced to third.
With Jonathan Loáisiga taking over for Leiter, George Springer then loaded the bases after J.C. Escarra was called for catcher interference. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went on to rip a two-run single at 115.7 mph to give Toronto the lead.
The play also saw Springer get thrown out at third. The Jay, sliding head-first, took a Jazz Chisholm Jr. knee to the throat and exited the game.
The top of the sixth featured a 109.2-mph, two-out, RBI single from Giancarlo Stanton, which came shortly after the Jays intentionally walked Aaron Judge.
Earlier, in the fourth, Chisholm hit his fourth homer in his last five games. The scorching-hot third baseman lofted a two-run blast off Max Scherzer and now has 14 longballs this season.
Cody Bellinger added a solo homer in the eighth to make it a one-run game, but the Yankees couldn’t add more after another intentional walk was issued to Judge.
Chisholm followed that free pass with a questionable sac bunt for the first out of the inning. Stanton then walked, but ex-Yankee Chad Green got Ben Rice and Volpe out to end the threat. Rice hit the ball on the screws to deep center, but it didn’t matter in the end.
The Yankees, now 10-13 against division rivals this season, also lost Trent Grisham in the game, as he departed in the fifth inning. The club announced that he exited with left hamstring tightness a little while later.
With Grisham out, Bellinger moved from left to center, while Jasson Domínguez took over in left.
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