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| Vladimir Guerrero Jr briefly tied the game at 3-3 as the Yankees held on to edge the Blue Jays 4-3 |
After dropping yesterday's rain-delayed matinee due to an inept offence, the Blue Jay were looking to notch their 26th series win of the season. Max Scherzer got the start with Alejandro Kirk behind the plate. Vlad got the Half day off as DH with Ty France at 1B. Bo Bichette was completely out of the lineup after whacking his shin against the shin pads of Yankees catcher Austin Wells (Ernie Clement took his spot at SS). Myles Straw was in CF and George Springer was in RF. Davis Schneider got the start at 2B. Could the Blue Jays notch their 26th series win of the season? Here is today's game recap.
Game Highlights:
- The Yankees opened the scoring in the bottom of the 1st as Ben Rice drilled a 3-run blast to right-center; also scoring Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger
- The Blue Jays got one back in the top of the 2nd as Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled scoring Alejandro Kirk
- A batter later, Ernie Clement scored on a sac fly by Nathan Lukes
- The Blue Jays tied it up in the top of the 3rd as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled scoring George Springer
- The Yankees retook the lead in the bottom half of the inning as Bellinger doubled scoring Judge
- Max Scherzer pitching line: 4.1IP 3H 4R (all earned) 4BB 8K 93 pitches (51 for strikes)
- Max Fried pitching line: 7IP 6H 3R (all earned) 1BB 4K 100 pitches (64 for strikes)
- David Bednar pitched a scoreless 9th for his 22nd save of the season
- Final score Yankees 4 Blue Jays 3
My Take:
- Max Scherzer battled through 4.1 innings, giving up 4 runs on 3 hits while walking 4 and striking out 8. While his command was off, it was encouraging to see him throw over 90 pitches after leaving his last start with back tightness. Scherzer will almost certainly get a playoff start.
- The bullpen threw 3.2 scoreless innings, walking 1 and striking out 5. Ryan Borucki and Brayden Fisher combined for 2.2 perfect innings and 5 strikeouts.
- Offensively, the Blue Jays did well to tie the game at 3, but they were not able to push across a 4th run. IKF, Nathan Lukes and Vlad drove in the runs.
- With the win, the Yankees drew within 2 games of the Blue Jays for 1st in the AL East and a likely bye to the divisional round. The Red Sox could get as close as 3.5 games back if they won their game this afternoon against the Diamondback (the game was tied at 4 at the release of this recap.)
- Up next, after an off-day tomorrow, the Astros, who swept the Blue Jays in Houston back in April, outscoring the Blue Jays 15-2 come to town. Ace Jose Berrios starts for the Blue Jays. The Astros haven't announced their rotation for the series yet.
