TORONTO — For the New York Yankees, the ugliness piled high like a plate of poutine Friday night.
A brief rundown of the Yankees’ 3-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays?
They threw around the baseball. Star rookie George Lombard Jr. made a mistake in a crucial moment. They couldn’t hit — again. They wasted good starting pitching — again. Manager Aaron Boone got ejected.
It was like a flashback to the 2025 Yankees, who played terribly at the Rogers Centre, going 1-6 in the regular season and 0-2 in the playoffs en route to an American League Division Series exit at the hands of the Blue Jays.
“We had some chances tonight,” Boone said. “Obviously, just couldn’t break it open.”
Blame Canada?
Not quite.
“We’ve just got to stay positive, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to be able to turn things around and positive and better things will come,” first baseman Luis García Jr. said via the team’s Spanish interpreter.
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It would have helped if the Yankees’ offense had shown up. And if that wasn’t going to happen, a spotless showing on defense would have helped.
Neither occurred. Fortunately for the Yankees, the first-place Tampa Bay Rays also lost, keeping their deficit in the AL East standings at 6 1/2 games.
Here were the biggest stains on a terrible night for the Yankees:
Wasting Gerrit Cole
Gerrit Cole has lowered his season ERA from above 4.00 at the beginning of July to 3.22 after Friday night. (Vaughn Ridley / Getty Images)
Cole gave up just one earned run in six innings to drop his season ERA to 3.22 in 15 starts. It should have been more than enough to help the Yankees beat Toronto starter Shane Bieber, who entered Friday with a 5.48 ERA.
But, once again, the Yankees’ offense was a disappointment — and nobody had a good explanation as to how it might turn around anytime soon.
Trent Grisham’s home run to lead off the sixth inning was the Yankees’ only run. They stranded Spencer Jones on third base after he led off the fourth inning with a hustle double to center field. They went hitless in three at-bats with runners in scoring position after entering the night hitting an MLB-worst .220 with RISP since Aaron Judge (stress fracture right first rib) last played May 31.
“At the end of the day,” Boone said, “we’ve got to push runners across when we have the opportunity because that’s where we struggled. We’ve got to make it happen.”
Still, it was better than Thursday, when the Yankees were blanked 1-0 by the Seattle Mariners. That afternoon, they wasted five innings and one run allowed from co-ace Max Fried.
Cole said all the right things postgame, including how the lack of run support isn’t getting to the Yankees pitchers, even as they feature the best ERA in the majors at 3.27.
“As a pitching staff,” Cole said, “maybe we actually take a little bit of pride in that. It’s a challenge.”
Major mistakes
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., left, collided with George Lombard Jr. and ended up scoring from first base when the Yankees made two errors on an infield groundball. (Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images via Reuters Connect)
In the third inning, the Blue Jays took advantage of Lombard’s lack of familiarity with the Rogers Centre turf, throwing him out as he strayed too far past second base on Grisham’s single. Lombard rounded the bag, and right fielder Nathan Lukes threw the ball straight to shortstop Andrés Giménez, who got Lombard into a rundown.
Lombard yelled as he ran down the dugout steps into the clubhouse, clearly upset with himself. Boone said Lombard was “late” in picking up the hold signal from third-base coach Luis Rojas.
“That’s a play,” Boone said, “where the ball’s hit firm like that, especially on the turf, you know it’s probably going to be a base-to-base situation. So you can’t aggressively round the bag in that situation. The read on that is, ‘OK, hard-hit ball, I know this is probably a station-to-station. But I pick up Luis before I get to the bag, so if something happens where I get sent …’ So just overly aggressive on the turn. Obviously a mistake there.”
The Yankees went Bad News Bears in the sixth. With one out and runners on first and second, third baseman Ryan McMahon fielded George Springer’s grounder and tagged third base for an out. But in his attempt at a double play, McMahon’s throw to first base was short and García couldn’t scoop it.
The ball skipped into the air and García somehow dropped his mitt. Then, with his bare hands, García grabbed the ball and fired toward third base in an attempt to throw out Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The problem? García didn’t stop to see if anyone was actually at third base. His throw rolled past the bag, and Lombard — trying desperately to stop it — collided with Guerrero, his hip driving right into Guerrero’s face. Still, Guerrero scored as the ball trickled away.
That tied the score at 1-1.
McMahon said his low throw to first base put García “in a tough spot.” But Boone said García should have read the situation better.
“Should have obviously held it,” Boone said.
In the next at-bat, Alejandro Kirk ripped an RBI double off Cole to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead.
‘Tired’ ejection
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected for the fourth time this season and 50th time in his managerial career. (Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images)
Boone notched the 50th ejection of his managerial career in the sixth inning arguing a low strike call.
Plate umpire Vic Carapazza wasn’t having it. After Boone yelled from the dugout, television cameras picked up Carapazza asking Boone what he said. Then the umpire threw him out.
Boone immediately bounded from the dugout, getting into Carapazza’s face before yelling some more at first-base umpire Nic Lentz.
“Don’t take your horses— night out on me,” Boone could be seen telling Carapazza.
Before that at-bat, the Automated Ball-Strike system had been used to reverse four calls against Carapazza.
“It’s just a tired toss with (an umpire) who was struggling early on in this game,” Boone said.
