Jays Lose to Yankees

Yankees 6 Jays 3

There were a ton of subplots going on tonight:

• The upshot of the Judge ‘darting eye’ issue was that the Jays, perhaps Pete Walker in particular, were watching that the base coach stayed in their ‘boxes’. Now base coaches (third base coaches in particular) leave the boxes to get a better angle on things. They want to be able to see where the outfielder catches the ball and where the baserunner is at the same time. Pete complained about where the Yankees’ third base coach was standing, which, in turn, got the Yankees complaining about where Luis Rivera stood. I guess the feeling was that Judge might have been glancing toward the first base coach and that the coach was in a better spot to see how the catcher was set up.
• Domingo German was tossed after three innings because he had sticky stuff on his hands. He’s likely going to end up with a 10-game suspension. German was dominating.
• The Jays still refuse to score for Kevin Gausman. We got him just three runs today, all coming in the fifth inning and all with two outs. Kevin Kiermaier homered. George Springer singled (Yankees pitcher Ian Hamilton left the game with some injury at that point, bringing up suggestions of cheating and being able to have the next pitcher warm up as long as needed). Bo Bichette doubled Springer home (great running George), and Vlad Guerrero singled home Bo, tying the game. Daulton Varsho lined one down the right-field line, but just foul and lined out.
• Vlad left the game in the ninth with knee soreness. It is worrying to me that this keeps coming up. People complain about Kiermaier and Merrifield getting days off, but baseball is a game of attrition. Playing anything daily will cause soreness (he says with a mild case of tennis elbow, which he’s hoping won’t become a serious case).
• We should have scored more. In the sixth, Matt Chapman singled. Then Whit Merrifield ground into a force at second. Merrifield was called safe at first on the field but out on the Yankees’ challenge. Danny Jansen followed with a double that would have scored Merrifield. And then was stranded at second. In the seventh, Kiermaier started things off with a single, but we couldn’t bring him around. We got a runner on in the eighth and two on in the ninth but didn’t score.
• Gausman was great, 7 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 2 walks, 10 strikeouts, with a Kiner-Falefa home run marring his night.
• The bullpen didn’t do the job. Erik Swanson gave up a two-run homer to Judge (his third in two games) in the eighth. And Anthony Bass gave up another run in the ninth.
• We had nine hits on the day, so you would expect more than three runs. Again there were troubles with runners in scoring position. We were 1 for 9 in those spots. The only hit was Vlad’s single in the fifth. Springer, Chapman and Kiermaier all had two hits.

Jays of the Day: Bo (.210 WPA), Chapman (.129) and Kiermaier (.110).

The Other Award: Swanson (-.345, he took the loss), Varsho (-.154), Merrifield (-.136), Jansen (-.099), Espinal (-.097), Belt (-.089, off one at-bat), and Biggio (-.087).

Tomorrow it doesn’t get easier. Gerrit Cole (5-0 2.22) vs. Chris Bassitt (5-2, 3.49).