Goldschmidt, Bellinger and Jazz power Yankees to thrilling win
- Davis Cornell
- May 18
- 5 min read
The Yankees took down the Blue Jays 7-6 in a back-and-forth affair. Ryan Weathers took the mound for the Yankees and faced off against Patrick Corbin.
In the top half of the first inning, Weathers navigated around a leadoff base knock and picked up his first strikeout of the ballgame, working a scoreless frame.
Paul Goldschmidt led off the bottom half of the first with a solo shot to right center on the first pitch he saw, giving the Yankees an early 1-0 lead.
Anthony Volpe shot a single the other way with one out in the bottom of the second inning. Max Schuemann worked a one-out free pass with two outs. Goldy worked a walk of his own, loading the bases with two outs for Ben Rice. Rice grounded out to second base to end the inning.
The Blue Jays took a 3-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning. Weathers was a strike away from stranding runners at the corners with one, but Ernie Clement crushed a three-run bomb to left on a changeup well below the zone.
“I executed a really quality pitch to Clement in the fourth,” Weathers said, “And he does what he does and put a good swing on it, he's a really good bat to ball hitter.”
Volpe lined a double to left center with one out in the bottom of the inning, then swiped third, his second stolen base of the game. Schuemann followed with a four-pitch walk, his second free pass of the game. J.C. Escarra picked up a sacrifice fly thanks to an unbelievable slide from Volpe to avoid the tag at home plate. Schuemann stole second and moved up to third on an E2. Goldy then just missed his second home run of the game but trotted into second with an RBI double off the base of the right center wall to make it a 3-3 game.
With two outs in the top of the fifth, George Springer gave the Blue Jays the lead right back with a solo shot to left center.
In the top of the sixth inning, Weathers surrendered back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners with one out. Paul Blackburn replaced Weathers on the mound and allowed an RBI fielder's choice to Clement, extending the Blue Jays' lead to 5-3.
Final line for Weathers: 5.1 innings pitched, allowing seven hits, five runs, didn't walk anybody, and striking out seven on 90 pitches. Weathers threw his sweeper 23% of the time, the sinker 23%, the fastball 21%, the changeup 20%, and the slider 12%. He topped out at 97.1 mph and sat 95.2 on his heater with nine total swings and misses tonight.
“I felt just kind of a mixed bag of results for me,” Weathers said. “I was getting a lot of swing and miss, and didn't really walk anybody. Didn't feel like I was threatening any counts. It was just a couple of swings, just got out of the way.”
Blackburn remained in the game for the top half of the seventh inning and faced the minimum, thanks to a 3-6-3 inning-ending double play.
With two outs in the bottom half of the inning, Judge hit a ball 110 mph off the left field wall; he hit it so hard that he was held to a single. Cody Bellinger followed with a game-tying two-run bomb into the Yankees' bullpen.
“Feel good here,” said Belli of his success at Yankee Stadium, now hitting .384 with a 1.286 OPS in the Bronx. “Love playing here. The atmosphere is amazing. And for me, just try to take it day by day, at bat, by at bat. Don't get too high or low, and just keep on playing.”
Then Trent Grisham pinch-hit for Amed Rosario and worked a walk. Then Jazz Chisholm, Jr. blasted a go-ahead, two-run homer off the left-field foul pole. The Yankees lead the Blue Jays, 7-5.
“Belli told me to sit on the slider, so I just sat on the slider,” Jazz said. “Just stay fair. That's it. Just stay fair.”
Fernando Cruz took over for Blackburn in the top half of the eighth inning and walked the first batter he faced to bring the tying run to the plate. However, he struck out the next three batters he faced on some nasty splitters.
Yankees closer David Bednar got the call for the top of the ninth inning and walked the first batter he faced to put the tying run on base. Jesús Sánchez followed with an RBI double to make it a one-run game and move the tying run into scoring position. Bednar then recorded a strikeout for out number one. Then walked a batter, putting the go-ahead run on first base. Bednar went from behind in the count 3-0 to throwing three straight splitters to strike out Springer. Then Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got ahead in the count 2-0 but grounded out to end the ballgame, as Bednar bends but doesn't break.
“I mean, at the end of the day, I trust myself,” Bednar said. “I trust the guys behind me. And I just want to go right after, guys.”
The Yankees will look to secure at least a split in the series with a win tomorrow. Will Warren will take the mound for the Yankees and face off against Dylan Cease. First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: Weathers looked solid tonight. He pitched a lot better than his final line indicates, just got bit by a couple of two-out long balls. Blackburn picked up five huge outs tonight. Cruz was nasty with three strikeouts on some unhittable splitters. Bednar took 10 years off my life, but he somehow picked up the save. Goldy with another big game; he needs to be playing every day right now, as he is now hitting .290 with a 1.004 OPS. Volpe, with his second straight multi-hit game and a great slide; he has been putting together some great at-bats since returning from the IL. Belli had a multi-hit game and a huge game-tying bomb. And of course, Jazz had the go-ahead homer, which ended up being the difference tonight. Just a great win for the Yankees, arguably the best win of the season. On to tomorrow as the Yankees will look to make it two in a row.
“I mean, it was A+,” Jazz said of the team effort tonight. “We went out there, we battled our butts off, Ryan went out there and did a great job, Cruz came in behind him, did a great job, and Bednar did an even better job. So I mean, we did an all-around great job.”
Comments