New York Yankees shortstop Gio Urshela gestures to his bench after hitting a solo home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the ninth inning at Rogers Centre. The Yankees beat the Blue Jays 7-2 on Sept. 28, 2021.John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
The Toronto Blue Jays got pounded on Tuesday night and made no ground in their quest to secure a playoff spot.
In the most significant week of baseball inside Toronto’s stadium since 2016, the visiting New York Yankees trounced the Jays 7-2 in the first game of a crucial three-game set that will help decide the American League wild-card race.
With five games left to play, the Jays (87-70) now sit three games back of the Yankees (90-67) for the first AL wild card spot, and still one game behind the Boston Red Sox (88-69) for the second. Boston’s loss to the Baltimore Orioles Tuesday balanced the damage done by Toronto’s loss.
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Adding to the chaotic AL wild card picture, later on in Tuesday action, the Seattle Mariners (88-70) also squeezed ahead of the Jays by half a game with a win over the Oakland Athletics (85-73) - another team still clawing for a wild card spot in this final week of the regular season.
Activated off the injured list, Hyun Jin Ryu started for the Jays and took the loss, striking out three in 4.1 innings while allowing six hits and three earned runs. The game was close for much of the night, until the Yankees bats exploded, while the Jays’ bats went cold.
“It wasn’t so much us, their bullpen did a good job,” said Jays Manager Charlie Montoya when asked about the Jays’ lack of offence in this game.
The Jays got Ontario government approval to double the crowd size at Rogers Centre to 30,000 starting Tuesday, roughly 56 percent of the building’s capacity. So 28,769 fans showed up, representing the best chance the club has had since before the pandemic to generate a home-field atmosphere. But the Jays did little to get them cheering. With the roof open to the Toronto sky on a beautiful crisp fall night, the building was not packed, nor was the volume ear-splitting. But it was full enough to look cozy and energized, much closer to real fall baseball – something the city has dearly missed.
After a wild up-and-down season, the Yankees had hit their stride just recently, coming to Toronto winners of their last six, including a weekend sweep over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Those three wins catapulted New York into the first Wild Card spot – one game up on Boston and two up on Toronto coming into Tuesday’s game. They built upon that in Toronto Tuesday.
The Jays too have also had a rollercoaster season. They’ve overcome issues with their bullpen and starting rotation and missed $150-million man George Springer for much the year. The made home bases in Dunedin and Buffalo before the Canadian government finally let them return to Toronto on July 30.
Tuesday’s high stakes series kicked off with Ryu on the mound, the lefty’s first game back since he was placed on the 10-day injured list on Sept. 17 with a mild neck strain. In his last two starts before that, the South Korean pitcher had allowed 12 runs in 4.1 innings pitched, but he had big successes against the Yankees this season.
Ryu allowed New York two hits in the first inning, but he hunkered down and got the Jays out of it, leaving two Yankees stranded on base.
Things looked promising for the Jays to start as they scored first, with a Bo Bichette bringing George Stringer home in the first inning.
Aaron Judge tied it by crushing a homer to right field. The Toronto faithful booed as the Yankees star rounded the bases.
The Jays pulled ahead again when a Corey Dickerson line drive down the right field line scored Bichette.
But Ryu got into some trouble in the fifth, putting three on base. An Adam Rizzo single and a Judge sac fly both scored Yankees, for a 3-2 lead. Ryu’s day was over.
“He gave us a chance,” said Montoya of Ryu’s performance. “He did what we wanted him to do.”
The noise swelled to its loudest in the bottom of the sixth when Bichette was ruled out on an agonizingly close play at third base that went to video replay. Fans implored that his hand safely dusted the bag, but the call went against Bichette. If called safe, he could have attempted a tying run at the time.
But a three-run homer by Giancarlo Stanton, crushed well into the left field bleachers off a low-inside pitch, cemented the win for New York in the bottom of the seventh. Urshela’s ninth-inning homer officially made it a route.
The Jays trotted out a parade of relievers to follow Ryu: Adam Cinder, Nate Pearson, Trevor Richards, Julian Merryweather and Anthony Castro. The Jays didn’t get a hit in the last five innings.
The second game of this series goes Wednesday in Toronto, with Gerrit Cole starting for New York and Jose Berrios for the Jays.
“Forget about tonight and be ready to play tomorrow,” said Montoya. “We’ve done it before, so why not do it again.”