It’s slipping away quickly.
After playing their way back into the playoff mix last month with a blistering hot winning streak, the Yankees are suddenly ice cold and grasping at the last postseason spot in the American League with just 23 games left to play. The Blue Jays rallied for late runs and beat the Yankees, 6-3, at the Stadium on Wednesday night.
It was a season high-tying fifth straight loss for the Yankees (78-61), who dropped their second straight series. The loss on the heels of the Red Sox win over the Rays put Boston in the top AL Wild Card spot ahead of the Yankees, who are now in the second spot with the Blue Jays just 1.5 games back in the Wild Card race.
The Blue Jays (76-62) improved to 8-6 against the Yankees this season and they have one last head-to-head series this season in Toronto. The Yankees dropped to 28-35 against AL East teams this season.
Wednesday night, the Yankees finally showed some offensive spark. Brett Gardner snapped an ugly streak of 22 straight innings the Bombers went without an extra-base hit.
The 38-year-old’s seventh home run of the season was a three-run shot in the fifth that tied the game at 3-3. It was the first extra-base hit since Gary Sanchez’s home run in the seventh inning of the loss to the Orioles on Sunday. It turned out to be the only extra-base hit the Yankees have had in their last three games.
But that was not enough to hold off the scrappy and surging Blue Jays.
Marcus Semien singled off Clay Holmes, advancing to second on Andrew Velazquez’s throwing error, and then scored on Teoscar Hernandez’s two-out single in the top of the seventh to give the Blue Jays the lead back.
Lourdes Gurriel tripled off Chad Green on a fly ball that got over Aaron Judge’s glove the next inning. Pinch runner Jarrod Dyson scored on a sacrifice fly to right field, sprinting to just beat Judge’s throw to the plate. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lined a laser into the left-field seats off Aroldis Chapman in the ninth for his 41st home run of the season. The Yankees closer was pitching for the first time in four games.
The Yankees offense was a concern before their 13-game winning streak and it is once again. In that winning streak last month, the Bombers hit .256/.345/.495 with 25 home runs and averaged 5.77 runs per game.
In the 11 games since then, the Yankees lineup has gone 74-for-359 with 18 extra-base hits, including 10 home runs. They have gone 2-9 in that span.
The Yankees had their chances with runners in scoring position in the seventh and eighth inning only to strand them.
It was obvious it was going to be a grind early when rookie right-hander Luis Gil struggled.
Gil, who began his major league career with 15 scoreless innings and had a pristine 0.00 ERA over three big league starts, was not sharp Wednesday. The 23-year-old was charged with three earned runs on one hit and seven walks. He struck out six.
Gil worked his way into and out of jams with walks through the first three innings.
In the top of the third, Gil had the bases loaded with one out when he coaxed a come-backer out of Bo Bichette and got the force out at home. He battled Hernandez for 13 pitches, the Blue Jays’ left fielder fouling off seven straight, to get out of the inning.
In the fourth, with his pitch count in the 80s, Gil couldn’t get out of the jam. After getting Alejandro Kirk to fly out, Gil walked Gurriel, Jake Lamb and Danny Jansen to load the bases and his night was done. Gurriel scored on Lucas Luetge’s wild pitch and Lamb and Jansen scored on Semien’s single. All three runs were charged to Gil.
Still, with his three scoreless innings Wednesday night, Gil broke the franchise record for scoreless innings to start a career, surpassing Slow Joe Doyle, who pitched 18 scoreless innings in August 1906.
