Yankees' bullpen allows close contest to get away in ALDS Game 1
TORONTO — Pffft.
There went the momentum from the Yankees’ emotion-packed victory over the Red Sox in the Wild Card Series.
Their bats went ice-cold on an unseasonably 77-degree afternoon north of the border, and the Yankees — shut down by splitter specialist Kevin Gausman and four relievers — were blown out by the Toronto Blue Jays, 10-1, in Game 1 of their American League Division Series on Saturday afternoon in front of a roaring sellout crowd of 44,655 at Rogers Centre.
The Yankees will send ace lefthander Max Fried to the mound Sunday afternoon in Game 2 of the best-of-five series. He’ll be opposed by hard-throwing rookie righthander Trey Yesavage.
“We’re going to keep the same mindset we’ve had all year,” said Aaron Judge, who went 2-for-4 but struck out in arguably the day’s biggest at-bat, going down swinging with the bases loaded and none out in the sixth inning with the Yankees trailing 2-0. “This game’s over with, it got out of hand, couldn’t come back, but we’ve got a big game coming up tomorrow and just take care of business.”
The Yankees, who lost Game 1 against the Red Sox before winning two straight, seemingly will have to travel a similarly difficult road in this series. However, the Blue Jays — who finished in a tie with the Yankees for the best record in the American League (94-68) and captured the AL East title because they won the season series — have a far deeper lineup than the Red Sox.
The Yankees also will have to win a game at some point at Rogers Centre, where they’re 1-7 this season.
“They’re a tough team regardless of the ballpark,” said Anthony Volpe, who went 1-for-4 with a double. “So we just have to do our best and show up and play and I think we’ll be fine.”
The Yankees trailed 2-1 entering the seventh after failing to take full advantage of the bases-loaded, none-out situation in the sixth, but Luke Weaver, Fernando Cruz and Paul Blackburn combined to allow eight earned runs, nine hits and two walks in the final two innings.
“That kind of seemed like the game, right?” Cody Bellinger said of getting only one run in the sixth on his bases-loaded walk with one out. “A good opportunity there for sure.”
The Yankees got only 2 2⁄3 innings out of Luis Gil, who had little in the way of swing-and-miss stuff and allowed solo home runs by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk in the first two innings.
“Definitely not the outing we wanted,” Gil said through his interpreter.
He later said “I wasn’t expecting that” when it came to his level of surprise at being taken out (a hard-to-argue move by manager Aaron Boone considering the righthander wasn’t doing much to fool the Blue Jays, the majors’ toughest team to strike out this season).
Tim Hill and Camilo Doval kept the Yankees in the game, but Weaver, who helped kick away Game 1 against the Red Sox, did not retire a batter and turned over a mess to Cruz, who could not clean it up. Blackburn then let the game get completely out of hand in a four-run eighth.
After an RBI single by Andres Gimenez against Weaver, Cruz allowed a two-run double by Nathan Lukes and a sacrifice fly by Guerrero to make it 6-1.
“I don’t really feel like myself,” said Weaver, who the Yankees believe is tipping his pitches, something the righthander alluded to multiple times after Saturday’s game. “I don’t feel like my mind is completely clear to go out there and attack. I do feel physically strong, I do feel mentally strong overall. I just think there are some factors that are building and I’m just not executing at the clip I want to.”
Against Blackburn in the eighth, Kirk hit his second home run of the day, Gimenez had an RBI double, Ernie Clement lifted a sacrifice fly and Lukes added an RBI single in another four-run inning that made it 10-1.
Guerrero, who has tormented Yankees pitchers since debuting in 2019, homered in the first off Gil and Kirk, who has tormented the Yankees almost as much since he debuted in 2020, homered leading off the second.
Guerrero, with a career .302 batting average and .918 OPS against the Yankees in his career coming into the day, had not hit a home run in his final 89 plate appearances of the season after homering against the Yankees’ Ryan Yarbrough on Sept. 5.
Guerrero, who had struggled in his previous trips to the playoffs (a .136 average) went 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Lukes went 2-for-5 with three RBIs.
Gausman, 12-10 with a 3.67 ERA in his career against the Yankees, including 2-1, 3.97 this season, allowed one run, four hits and two walks in 5 2⁄3 innings.
The one run came in the sixth, an inning the Yankees would rue.
Volpe, having a strong postseason, led off with a double, Wells singled and Trent Grisham walked to load the bases. Judge, after working the count full, struck out on a splitter that was low and outside. After Bellinger walked, Ben Rice popped out and righty Louis Varland struck out Giancarlo Stanton swinging at a 101-mph fastball, dropping the DH to 1-for-14 these playoffs.
“I didn’t get the job done,” Judge said. “I think that’s what it comes down to, just not doing the job.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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