Yankees fall 5-4 after costly sixth inning in Toronto

Toronto—The Yankees lose a frustrating one, 5-4, to the Blue Jays behind a sloppy sixth inning. Carlos Rodon got the starting nod for the Yankees, and future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer took the mound for the Jays. 

In the top half of the first inning, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, and Aaron Judge went down in order for the Yankees. 

Rodon worked around a two-out double in the bottom of the first inning to put together a scoreless frame. 

Rodon gave up a lead-off single, then a walk; however, Rodon got Vladimir Guerrero Jr., followed by a ground out from Alejandro Kirk, as Rodon worked into and out of trouble to work a scoreless bottom of the third. 

Grisham dunked a bloop single the other way to left field to lead off the top of the fourth inning for the Yankees' first hit and baserunner of the ballgame. A couple batters later, Lazz Chisholm Jr. launched his 14th home run of the season to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. 

Rodon picked up two strikeouts in the bottom of the fourth inning to put his total up to four on the game and help strand runners at the corners.

In the top of the fifth inning, Anthony Volpe roped a one-out double down the third base line. However, JC Escara lined out and DJ LeMahieu flew out to strand Volpe. 

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Jasson Dominguez took over for Grisham on defense, as Grisham left the game with hamstring tightness. Vlad cut the Yankees' lead in half via an RBI groundout to make it a 2-1 game. 

“Tough to say left hamstring. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow, so we'll see," Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said on Grisham. "Yeah, the kind of bloop in front of them that kind of run in, and he short hopped in right center, I believe, felt it there. So we'll see what we have.”

In Dominguez’s first at bat of the allgame to leadoff the top of the sixth, he legged out an infield single. A couple of batters later, Judge was intentionally walked, then Giancarlo Stanton came through with a huge two-out RBI single to make it a 3-1 game. 

Rodon came back out for the bottom of the sixth inning and served up a leadoff double. Mark Leiter Jr. took over for Rodon on the mound and gave up a RBI single to make it a 3-2 game. Ernie Clement tied the game up at 3-3 via a RBI infield single. Vlad then just snuck a ball under Jazz’s glove for a RBI single to give the Jays a 5-3 lead. Jonathan Loáisiga replaced Leiter and avoided further damage. 

Carlos Rodon's final line: 5+ innings pitched, five hits allowed, two earned runs, three walks, seven swings and misses, and four strikeouts on 96 pitches. Rodon threw the fastball 36% of the time, the slider 34%, the changeup 13%, the sinker 10%, and the curveball 6% of the time. Rodon was solid tonight, just too many walks, but the umps didn't help him at times.

"I wish I could have kept going, but need to be better with being in the zone." Rodon said. 

Loáisiga remained in the game for the bottom of the seventh and worked a scoreless inning with a strikeout. 

Belli led off the top of the eighth inning with his 12th home run of the season to put the Yankees within one run, making it a 5-4 game. The next batter, Judge, was intentionally walked with nobody on base. Jazz then laid down a successful sacrifice fly to move Judge up to second. Stanton then worked a walk of his own. However, Ben Rice flew out to deep center, and Anthony Volpe lined out sharply to strand two runners on base. 

Dominguez lined a two-out single up the middle in the top of the ninth inning, but Belli flew out to end this one 5-4. 

The Yankees will look to bounce back tomorrow with Max Fried on the mound, facing off against Kevin Gausman for the Jays. The first pitch is scheduled for 3:07 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Extremely frustrating loss tonight for the Yankees, as a sloppy sixth inning with a couple of errors proved to be the difference. Grisham left the game with hamstring tightness. Hopefully, he's ok. Dominguez had two hits off the bench, taking over for Grisham. Leiter ended up really coasting the Yankees with his three earned runs in the sixth inning. Rodon was decent, not the best I have ever seen him by any means, but still gave us a great chance to win. We found out before the game Fernado Cruz went to the IL with a high grade left oblique strain so he is going to miss a good amount of time witch obviously suck we really could have used him tonightn in the sixth inning. Jazz also stayed hot at the plate with a home run, but I was a little confused by him laying down a bunt in the eighth inning, considering he has been the Yankees' hottest hitter, even if it was a left-hander pitching. Frustrating loss, but it is what it is; on to tomorrow with Fried on the mound.