Yankees fall flat in crucial opener, offense silenced in 7-1 Loss

New York—The Yankees' offense struggled in a 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays in the biggest series of the season thus far. Cam Schlittler got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Kevin Guasman. 

Cam quickly picked up the first two outs of the game via the strikeout, then gave up back-to-back hits, including an RBI double to Bo Bichette, to give the Jays a 1-0 lead. A couple of batters later, Nathan Lukes dunked in a two-run bloop single, making it a 3-0 game. It looked like Aaron Jude could have made the throw home to cut down the second run, but he is still clearly not 100% out there.

"Just drop the ball in, you know, throw it into the cutoff man, it's a two-run single. What else? What do you mean?" Judge said. "I wouldn't be in the outfield if I wasn't able to make that throw. Get it in, get it to the cutoff man, let him do his thing." 

In the bottom of the first inning, Trent Grisham, Ben Rice, and Judge went down in order for the Yankees. 

With one out in the top of the second, Cam hit a batter, walked a batter, and gave up a single to load the bases. Bichette then picked up a sac fly to make it a 4-0 ballgame and knock Cam out of the game. Ryan Yarbrough, who was activated off the IL earlier this week, replaced him and picked up a strikeout to end the frame. 

Cam Schlittler's final line: 1.2 innings pitched, five hits allowed, four earned runs, two walks, 10 swings and misses, and two strikeouts on 66 pitches. Cam threw his fastball 52% of the time, the cutter 26%, the curveball 15%, the sinker 6%, and the sweeper 2% of the time. Cam really struggled to put hitters away with two strikes tonight as the Jays were just fouling off everything. Cam was due for a bad start; I just wish it wasn't tonight. 

"Yeah, you know, I think I was getting, getting ahead into that 1-2, 0-2 counts, just being able to, foul pitches and, put them in play," Cam said. "And the guy was making the right pitches, just getting, you know, that weak contact, and they were able to put it in the gaps."

"Credit a lot of really good at-bats," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "I thought his stuff was good. He was in the strike zone, using both his cutter and breaking ball. The fastball had better life to it to me than it did last time." 

Giancoalo Stabnton crushed a long solo home run into the Jays' bullpen, his 19th of the year, to cut the Jays' lead to 4-1. 

In the top half of the fourth inning, Yarbrough worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 inning. 

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off the top of the fifth inning with a solo home run to make it a 4-1 ballgame. 

Ryan McMahon worked a lead-off walk in the bottom of the sixth inning, but that would be all for the Yankees as the next three hitters all went down on the first pitch. 

Aaron Judge led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a single right back up the middle. A couple of batters later, Stanton lined a single to left field. However, Jazz Chisholm Jr. went down on strikes, and Paul Goldschmidt flew out to strand two runners on base. 

In the top of the eighth inning, Mark Leiter Jr. took over for Yarbrough on the mound and walked a batter, followed by an RBI double from Ernie Clement, making it a 6-1 game. 

Trent Grisham lined a two-out single to right-center field in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Rice grounded out to end the inning, as Guasman has shut down the Yankees for eight innings. 

Camilo Doval replaced Leiter in the top of the ninth inning and served up a two-out RBI double to Daulton Varsho to make it a 7-1 game. 

The Yankees went down without much of a fight in the bottom of the ninth inning as they started off the biggest series of the year with an embarrassing 7-1 loss. 

The Yankees will look to bounce back tomorrow with Luis Gil on the mound, facing off against future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: The offense had an embarrassing performance tonight, as the Yankees are now four games back from the Jays, technically five since they have the tiebreaker. The Yankees are now 17-23 against the AL East and 3-8 against the Jays this year. Cam in the biggest start of his young career really struggled, as he just could not put any Jays hitters away; they were just fouling everything off, leading to him not being able to make it through two innings. Stanton crushed a home run tonight, and Yarbrough was great in his return from the IL. Those were the only positives tonight for the Yankees. Judge returned to the outfield tonight for the first time since July 25 and allowed a ball to drop in between him and Jazz in the fifth inning, and also looked like he couldn't make a throw home. Doval also continued to struggle for the Yankees tonight as he has now given up a run or more in seven out of his 15 outings and has a 4.97 ERA in his time in the Bronx. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees still have a chance to win the series. 

"Just where we're at with our throw-in progression, you know, it felt good," Judge said. Felt like we were getting out to a good distance, everything is feeling pretty good, so if you can throw, you gotta get out there."