Yankees survive late scare, edge Blue Jays 5-4 for 30th win
- Davis Cornell
- May 19
- 4 min read
The Yankees took down the Blue Jays 5-4 in a nail-biter to secure their 30th win of the season. Will Warren got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Dylan Cease.
Warren allowed a pair of singles in the top half of the first inning to put runners at the corners with one out. However, he induced a pop-up and a groundout to work into and out of trouble.
Trent Grisham led off the bottom half of the first inning with a single, and Cody Bellinger worked a two-out walk. But Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out to end the inning.
The game remained scoreless until the top half of the fourth inning, when Yohendrick Piñango kicked off the scoring with an RBI single, giving the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Jesús Sánchez followed with an RBI single of his own. A few batters later, Andrés Giménez made it 3-0 with an RBI base knock.
“I mean, didn't execute some pitches,” Warren said. “But I think their MO is kind of, they're super aggressive, but they're going to put the ball in play. And some stuff found some holes, and they put the pressure on. And they end up getting three runs. But I think we did a good job of minimizing that inning.”
In the bottom half of the inning, the Yankees responded. Aaron Judge worked a leadoff walk thanks to a successful ABS challenge, Jazz then worked a one-out free pass. Ryan McMahon followed with a game-tying three-run bomb the other way to left field to break out of an 0-for-24 slide.
“Just a little bit of a jolt of energy to the team,” McMahon said. “Feel like you're right back in it, and yeah, good things happen.”
Warren worked a 1-2-3 shutdown top of the fifth inning and recorded his third punchout of the ballgame to end the frame.
Grisham drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the frame, Ben Rice followed with a go-ahead two-run homer, his 16th of the year, giving the Yankees a 5-3 lead.
“Just was able to pull the hands in,” Rice said. “I honestly wasn't sure if it was going to go out. I know I didn't get it quite perfectly. But I was glad I was able to elevate it just enough.”
Tim Hill replaced Warren on the mound in the top half of the sixth and navigated around a two-out walk, working a scoreless inning.
Final line for Warren: Five innings pitched, six hits allowed, three earned runs, walking one, and striking out three on 86 pitches. Warren threw his fastball 41% of the time, the sinker 33%, the sweeper 19%, and the changeup 8% of the time. Warren topped out at 96.7 mph and sat 93.5 on his heater, and had nine swings and misses tonight.
“I thought it was good,” Warren said. “I think, for the most part, we did execute. They just took advantage of the couple of pitches that didn't get to our spots.”
Jake Bird came in relief for Hill in the top of the eighth and picked up the first two outs thanks to a beautiful diving play from Rice, then plunked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Brent Headrick replaced Bird and surrendered a single, putting runners at the corners, then induced a groundout to end the inning.
“Yeah, that was big,” Rice said of his diving play. “I was glad I was able to get a good jump on it and just try to slow it down as much as I can and get a glove on it.”
Aaron Boone was ejected from the ballgame in between innings for arguing Jazz’s lineout that he thought hit the ground. Headrick came back out for the top of the eighth inning and retired the Blue Jays in order with a couple of strikeouts.
With Yankees closer David Bednar unavailable tonight, Camilo Doval got the call for the top of the ninth and walked the No. 8 hitter to lead off the inning. Then he allowed a single putting runners at the corners with nobody out. Doval got George Springer to ground out back to the mound for out number one, allowing the tying run to move up to second. Valddy made it a one-run ballgame with a sacrifice fly. It looked like Doval picked up the final out of the ballgame on a groundball to second, but Rice tried to dive for it, and Doval didn't cover first, allowing the runner to reach. However, Doval induced a groundout to shortstop to end the ballgame and pick up the save, exhale.
The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow in a great pitching matchup between Cam Schlittler and Trey Yesavage. First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. ET on Prime Video.
My thoughts on the game: Decent start for Warren, it was really just one rough inning, and he wasn't able to pitch deep into the game. Hill continues to be the saving grace of this bullpen; his ERA is now down to 1.37. Bird was decent; he got some help from a great play by Rice. Headrick picked up four huge outs. And Doval did his best, Clay Holmes, Devin Williams, and Bednar impersonation in the ninth, making things stressful, but he hung on for the save. Rice and McMahon each went deep tonight to account for all five of the Yankees' runs. Another big win for the Yankees, improving to 11 games above .500 at 30-19. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees have an opportunity to win the series in what should be a pitcher's duel.
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