If they aren’t mashing the panic button in New York, they’re at least tapping it forcefully.
Yes, the New York Yankees enter play Monday as the first-place team in the American League East, a position they’ve held since July 3. But after a disheartening sweep at the hands of the hard-charging Toronto Blue Jays, the Bronx Bombers’ division hold feels tenuous at best.
Granted, everyone is losing to the Jays these days.
Toronto netted All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and ace left-hander David Price at the trade deadline, and since the first trade July 28, the Blue Jays have gone 11-1, grabbing the top wild-card spot.
Now, after their dominant three-game showing at Yankee Stadium, Toronto sits 1.5 games behind New York. That breath the Yankees are feeling on the back of their neck? It smells like maple syrup.
The Yankees actually held Toronto’s vaunted offense in check over the weekend, limiting the Blue Jays to 10 runs in three games, and twice holding them to two runs.
But the Yanks’ bats, which have propelled them for much of the season, went ice-cold. New York plated just a single run Friday before getting shut out by Price and the Toronto bullpen Saturday.
In Sunday’s series closer, behind ace Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees again put up a zero, managing just three singles against Jays starter Marco Estrada and a trio of relievers.
Tanaka pitched well enough, surrendering only a pair of solo homers to Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista. But that was all it took for Toronto, which lately seems to be finding every conceivable way to win.
There’s still plenty of baseball left. It’s almost impossible to believe the Jays can stay this hot—loaded lineup and deadline cavalry notwithstanding.
That was skipper Joe Girardi‘s line after Saturday’s loss.
“You could make a lot of these two games and obviously, I said this was an important series going in,” Girardi said, per Dan Martin of the New York Post. “But really, what’s going to determine the division is you’ve got two months to go.”
Well, now it’s three games, but the point is taken. The Yankees, however, need to regroup in a hurry.
Beginning Tuesday, they embark on a six-game road trip that begins with a three-game series against the Cleveland Indians and concludes with a trio of contests north of the border against these same Blue Jays.
If Toronto sweeps, or even wins, that series, it’s probable we’ll have a new leader in the AL East. And the two clubs will meet for four more in New York beginning Sept. 10.
Any Yankees turnaround will begin with the offense, which ranks second in MLB in runs scored (yes, they trail Toronto).
But the starting rotation, which owns an ERA of 4.31, needs to pick up the slack. To that end, how huge would it have been for New York to grab Price from the Detroit Tigers at the deadline, adding him to its arsenal and keeping the stud southpaw away from Toronto?
That’s not merely idle speculation. General manager Brian Cashman was interested in Price, according to Bill Madden of the New York Daily News, but Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos was quicker on the trigger, wowing the Tigers with a package of blue-chip talent.
The Yankees did not match the Blue Jays’ offer. As Madden noted, Cashman was unwilling to part with top prospects Luis Severino, Aaron Judge or Greg Bird.
Now, of course, it’s a moot point. The Yankees stood pat, Price is a Blue Jay and, as Madden put it, “that tremor being felt in the AL East” is emanating from Canada.
The question now is whether the Bombers can take their finger off the panic button and answer back with a little shaking of their own.
All statistics and standings current as of Aug. 9 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.
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