The good news is that Anthony Volpe got a hit, and Trent Grisham hit a homer to produce the only 2 Yankee runs on a night when they only got 3 hits in getting shut down by a smoking Jose Berrios.
And so they would have probably lost anyway even if Carlos Rodon had pitched well.
More good news — Rodon’s performance wouldn’t have been so bad had George Springer had the night off. Springer hit 2 (two) 3-run homers off Rodon in the 1st two innings of the game to account for 6 of the 8 runs the Blue Jays scored.
After the damage was done, Rodon pitched 3 shutout innings and left after 5.
On a Thursday night in Toronto, all while the Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was going on — many people watching that instead of the Yankee game.
“I don’t want to sugar coat it too much, but in and around it you see a lot of the really good tonite,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “You see the stuff; you see the 9 punch outs. The 1st inning was weird with the broken bat and the squibber up the line. Two-strike hit backfoot slider, all part of it — and then I thought he actually beat Springer with some fastballs to get to 2 strikes, and then it’s kind of, he (Springer) sold out to fastballs.”
“We need to execute at a higher level and make the adjustments that clearly some teams game-planning are doing a good job of against him,” added Boone. “But while he’s wearing it right now and going through it, there’s also part of it that — it’s a gutsy effort to not want out, want to finish thru 5. So we’ll make the adjustment; the stuff is there.”
Despite all the good news, NY falls to 52-31, and are in a 1st place tie with Baltimore — the Orioles actually percentage points ahead. Toronto improves to 37-43.
1. Rodon SMOKED
Carlos Rodon came out and got SMOKED from the get go. Donte Bichette led off the bottom of the 1st with a single, Isiah Kiner-Falefa got hit with a pitch, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.doubled in a run.
Justin Turner hit a broken-bat, excuse-me roller down the 1st base line, and Ben Rice let the ball roll figuring it would roll foul — but it hugged the line and hit the 1st base bag — a really bad-looking error by Rice that was ruled a hit. A run scored and it was 2-0 Toronto.
This pretty much sums it up pic.twitter.com/TvXUVh09EU
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) June 27, 2024
Whether that shook Rodon’s mindset or not, it certainly opened the floodgates as next batter George Springer homered to left and it was 5-0 Toronto.
Rodon got the next 2 outs, and should have been out of the inning if not for Rice’s miscue — but then allowed a double and a single in the inning before striking out Dante Bichette.
But in the 2nd — it was literally more of the same; Rodon hit Isiah Kiner-Falefa again, Justin Turner walked with 1 out, and George Springer hit ANOTHER 3-run homer. Toronto 8 NY 0.
After that Rodon found his groove — pitching a shutout 3rd through 5th inning.
Oswaldo Cabrera helped Rodon out with a nifty bare-handed play at 3rd in the 4th.
Cabrera with a nifty play 👏👏#YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/Tofw7zJxyO
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) June 28, 2024
Rodon’s line: 5 IP, 10 hits, 8 earned runs, 8 K’s, 1 walk — he loses to go 9-5 4.42.
2. Berrios Stifles Yanks
And that was more than enough runs for Toronto as Jose Berrios stifled the Yanks on 2 hits in 7 innings.
Anthony Volpe actually led off the game with a single off Berrios, and Alex Verdugo worked a 2-out walk — but Berrios got the final out and cruised from there, until getting touched for a 2-run homer by Trent Grisham in the 5th.
After the homer, Berrios pitched 2 more shutout innings and with the big lead was never in trouble.
His line: 7 IP, 2 H, 2 runs, 8 K’s, 1 walk — he wins to go 7-6 3.38.
3. Grisham Homer
In the 5th, Oswaldo Cabrera was hit by a pitch with 1 out, and Trent Grisham hit a 339-foot homer to left for an 8-2 game.
Grisham gets the Yankees on the board 💣#YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/rMHSMAbA8V
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) June 28, 2024
4. Bickford & Cousins Clean Up
Phil Bickford pitched the 6th into the 7th — allowing a solo homer to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.in the 6th to make it 9-2.
Jake Cousins got the last 2 outs of the 7th and pitched a shutout 8th.
Etcetera
Aaron Judge came into the game with a .309 batting average, 2nd in the AL behind Bobby Witt Jr’s .311. Judge went 0-4 to drop to .304 and is now 4th in the AL. Judge leads in HR’s (with 30) and RBI’s (with 77).
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401569691
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