TORONTO – Aaron Judge’s first-pitch, first-inning home run was colossal by any measure, sailing an estimated 455 feet to center field at Rogers Centre.
But for all its awe-inspiring majesty, it produced just one run against Robbie Ray.
From there, the Blue Jays’ ace lefty had a trouble-free Thursday night into the sixth inning, protecting a one-run lead and looking a lot like your 2021 AL Cy Young award winner.
But in this freaky kind of Yankees year, it’s natural that a sleepy-looking lineup would suddenly produce a thunderous response.
How about three homers off Ray, in a span of four batters, to open a three-run lead?
Anthony Rizzo and Judge connected back-to-back, and Gleyber Torres belted a two-run shot after a walk — stunning Ray and silencing the excitable Toronto crowd.
By ambushing Ray and rolling to a 6-2 win before 29,659 fans, the Yankees offered a splendid sign of their playoff-chase mettle and a sample of how dangerous they might be in the tournament.
The Yankees' next win would punch their ticket into the wild-card game.
Looking wilder
In danger of losing a second straight game against Toronto (88-71), the Yankees (91-68) increased their AL wild card-lead to two games over Boston (89-70) with three games to go.
Somehow, the Red Sox dropped two of three games against the 107-loss Orioles at Baltimore (well, the Yanks know a little something about that) and have limped on to last-place Washington for their final three games.
The Orioles arrive in Toronto for their season-ending three-game series beginning Friday.
And with the Yanks moving closer toward hosting Tuesday’s wild-card game, the Jays, Red Sox and Mariners (89-70) would be left to fight for the right to visit a crazed Yankee Stadium for that elimination game.
DJ LeMahieu exits with injury
As the Yankees left Toronto for a three-game home series against the already-clinched AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays to close out the regular season, there was one front-and-center concern.
DJ LeMahieu (0 for 3) left the game in the sixth inning, due to a recurrence of pain in his right hip.
For the past several weeks, LeMahieu has been dealing with hip/groin soreness, causing him to sit out last Saturday’s game at Boston.
LeMahieu had recently undergone an MRI, though both he and the Yankees were guarded about its results. There was a suggestion by LeMahieu that the issue could be resolved surgically after the season.
Surviving the road trip
Entering a tough final road stretch, essentially playing playoff games to qualify for postseason, manager Aaron Boone’s club won five of six games against their closest rivals.
After sweeping the Red Sox in three games last weekend at Fenway Park, the Yankees took two of three at Toronto, as tough a road venue as they’ve experienced in recent years.
This was the Yanks first trip to Rogers Centre since the pandemic, and Ray — with a 2.68 ERA and league-leading 244 strikeouts entering Thursday — was waiting to deliver Toronto a critical series victory.
But it all changed with one out in the sixth, and the Jays clinging to a 2-1 lead.
On a terribly located 0-2 fastball, Rizzo lofted his 250th career home run over the right field wall.
And on the heels of that game-tying launch, Judge cracked a 1-1 fastball to center for the go-ahead smash, his 39th homer of the year.
Wrecking Ray's night
At this point, the raucous Toronto crowd’s electricity became unplugged and they stayed quiet as Stanton walked and Torres drilled an 0-2 pitch far over the center-field wall for a 5-2 lead.
Suddenly, the short-sleeved Ray felt every bit of the 50-degree chill under Rogers Centre’s open roof as he exited the game.
Ray had yielded four hits Thursday, all of them home runs, while Yankees starter Corey Kluber was charged with two runs in 4 2/3 innings.
Michael King and Luis Severino bridged it to Aroldis Chapman, given a bonus run on Brett Gardner's ninth-inning solo homer.
A brief edge
Toronto took a 2-1 lead in the fifth against Kluber, who might have deserved a better fate.
Sure-handed shortstop Gio Urshela could not snare George Springer’s hot liner with a leaping attempt, and it popped out of his glove for a gift single.
Next, Marcus Semien rolled into a would-be, inning-ending double play, only to be called safe at first base on replay review.
Given that reprieve, Vlad Guerrero Jr. cashed in with an RBI double off the very top of the center-field wall — missing a two-run homer by inches — to give Toronto a 2-1 lead.
