Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Daz Cameron had an RBI double on Sunday, as part of an extra-innings loss to the New York Yankees.Nick Turchiaro/Reuters
The Blue Jays would have liked to sweep the Yankees on Sunday but won five of seven games on a difficult homestand and head to Florida with a playoff position well within striking distance.
They lost to New York 4-3 in 10 innings but are just one game behind in the American League Wild Card race. A season that had gone astray has turned interesting. Toronto has won seven of its last 10 contests and 13 of 20.
The Blue Jays took three of four from the Red Sox and two of three from the Yankees. After a day off, they will take on the first place Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla., for the first of three games. From there Toronto travels to the Bronx for another three with New York.
“I like the overall feel of the club right now,” manager John Schneider said. “We want to keep stacking series wins, continue to play and pitch like we have been.”
The Blue Jays got another quality outing from starting pitcher Dylan Cease (7-5), who lasted 6 1/3rd innings and allowed two runs on two hits, with three walks and 10 strikeouts.
He has struck out 10-plus batters in nine of his starts this season and caught Trent Grisham looking on a slider for his 200th punch-out to end the sixth inning. The right-hander has recorded 200 or more strikeouts in six consecutive seasons and is the first pitcher to do it since Max Scherzer accomplished the feat from 2012-2019 and Chris Sale did so from 2013-2019.
Cease leads the AL with 201 strikeouts.
It turned out to be a wasted effort because Toronto was dominated by Ryan Weathers. The Yankees left-hander scattered six hits and gave up just one run before he left with one out in the seventh inning.
The Blue Jays trailed 2-1 until Ernie Clement drove in Josh Smith on a sacrifice fly with one out in the bottom of the ninth off Yankees closer David Bednar.
Andrés Giménez had a pair of hits and an RBI on Sunday, with the Blue Jays winning seven of their last 10 games, pushing their way into the playoff race.Cole Burston/Getty Images
Until then Bednar had converted 17 consecutive save opportunities dating back to May 18.
Rice made amends for his ninth-inning error in the top of the 10th, however, when he blasted a two-run shot 438 feet to right-centre field off Braydon Fisher to give New York a 4-2 lead and a bit of breathing room. It was Rice’s 33rd home run of the season.
Kazuma Okamoto scored in the bottom half of the 10th on a single by Andrés Giménez but the Blue Jays were unable to push the tying run across against Tim Hill. Bednar ended up earning the victory and improved to 6-3. Fisher was tagged with the loss and fell to 3-4.
Toronto had opportunities but failed to generate enough offence to scratch out a win. It hit into three double plays, lost an out on a base-running error, and the Yankees stole four bases against Alejandro Kirk.
Toronto got two hits from rookie Charles McAdoo, a run-scoring double by Daz Cameron and two singles from Giménez, who is second on the team with 49 runs batted in. Okamoto leads with 71.
Cameron, who spent most of the season playing in Korea, was called up from Buffalo over the weekend. After driving in Okamoto, who had also doubled, Cameron was thrown out trying to advance to third on a grounder to shortstop.
“We had chances throughout, down to the wire,” Schneider said. “We had a chance to score a second run in the 10th but didn’t push it across. Once you get into extras anything can happen.”
The Blue Jays are 9-5 since the Aug. 3 trade deadline and are receiving unexpected contributions from newcomers.
“It has been good to get the new guys in here,” the manager added. “The guys have something to prove and have brought energy. This is a tough part of the schedule and they have responded.”