Yankees Avoid Sweep in Toronto With Huge Ninth-Inning Rally

That was one hell of a rally by the Yankees as they scored four times in the ninth to beat the Blue Jays 6-4 and avoid getting swept, and it was Aaron Judge who delivered the winning hit. Down in Box Score Briefs, I have thoughts on the Orioles who look like they are about to catch fire, and it was a big day for former Yankees as the resurgent Mets beat the Pirates thanks largely to Luis Severino and Harrison Bader, and the Padres’ Michael King flirted with a no-hitter. Lets get to it.

April 17: Yankees 6, Blue Jays 4

Lets hope that Aaron Judge just woke the hell up Wednesday afternoon because what he had been producing through the first two-plus weeks of this season was simply untenable.

The Yankees have somehow gotten off to a 13-6 start having gotten almost nothing from their superstar slugger, but the big guy finally came through with a huge go-ahead two-run single in the top of the ninth to cap a spirited four-run rally which salvaged the finale of what had been a heretofore awful three-game series in Toronto.

It has been jarring to see Judge look so hopeless at the plate, and this game was really no different until his final plate appearance when he ripped a grounder down the third-base line to chase home Alex Verdugo and Jose Trevino.

“You just leave it all out there,” Judge said. “It doesn’t matter what happened before. If you had a good game, if you had a bad game, you can change the course of everything with just one swing.”

Judge was 0-for-8 in the first two games, then started this one with a strikeout looking in the first, a double play grounder in the third, a swinging strikeout in the fifth, and a swinging strikeout in the eighth. I mean, it doesn’t get any worse and at that point he was in a 5-for-37 slide with his average down to .171.

Honestly, when he came up in the ninth, did anyone expect him to get a hit? I sure didn’t, so good on him for shaking all of that misery out of his mind and delivering one of the Yankees biggest hits of the young season. This surprised me when I saw this stat nugget, but that was the 16th time in his career that he has put the Yankees ahead in the ninth inning or later which is the most in MLB since 2018.

“At the end of the day, we all know what kind of player he is,” Juan Soto said. “Tough series for him, you just gotta forget about it and keep going. At the end of the day, he got the hit in the right moment and the right spot. That’s what we’ve been looking for is to see those hits that he gets to help the team win the game.”

Here are my observations:

➤ The Yankees had 10 hits in the first two games but then managed 11 in this game, with five of those coming in the ninth inning alone. Baseball is such a weirdly wonderful game which is why we love it so much.

➤ Marcus Stroman only managed to get one out into the sixth because his pitch count rose to 99, but he was pretty good. He made the one mistake, the two-run homer to Daulton Varsho in the second inning that, for a long time, felt like it was going to be all the Blue Jays would need. Stroman allowed six hits and two walks, but he struck out only two which is a little alarming. The Yankees just aren’t striking batters out.

➤ Caleb Ferguson continued to underwhelm. He took over in the sixth and did a nice job to leave a Stroman runner stranded at third, but then he gave up a home run to Varsho in the seventh and walked Kevin Kiermaier. Ian Hamilton came in and wasn’t much better because he permitted Kiermaier to score thanks to a single, a walk and then a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Bo Bichette before striking out Justin Turner to keep it at 4-1.

➤ Juan Soto had another great day. He was on base all five times and now has an absurd on-base percentage of .478 as he had two walks, a single, an RBI double for the Yankees first run in the fifth, and a solo homer that made it 4-2 in the eighth. He even threw out Kiermaier at second base. What a player.

➤ The ninth-inning eruption was filled with shocking developments, especially given how somnolent the offense had been through the first 26 innings of the series. It began with a 437-foot Stantonian blast to left, but I thought the key was that Gleyber Torres - looking as bad as he ever has lately and with three strikeouts already in the game - immediately singled after Stanton’s home run. That kept the pressure on Blue Jays reliever Erik Swanson who was making his season debut. When Alex Verdugo doubled to right, Torres went to third and suddenly the tying and go-ahead runs were in scoring position with no outs.

➤ Neither runner moved when Oswaldo Cabrera came up empty with a groundout which was shocking giving the Yankees’ love of the contact play. Torres staying put at third kept alive the chance for a big inning, and the next shocker came from Jose Trevino. The Jays sent in lefty Tim Mayza so Aaron Boone pinch hit Trevino for Austin Wells who has been even worse as a batter than Trevino. Trevino, who had three RBI Tuesday, got another as he singled through the drawn-in infield and Torres scored the tying run. Anthony Volpe made an unproductive out which left him 1-for-13 for the series, but then Soto walked to load the bases and set the stage for Judge and he took a bow.

➤ As bad as Volpe was at the plate, he made a dazzling play to end the game. Kiermaier singled off Clay Holmes and he was on second with two outs when Vladimir Guerrero ripped a grounder up the middle that looked destined to be an RBI single. Instead, Volpe made a diving stop and got up and fired a rocket and, surprise, surprise, Anthony Rizzo actually caught it to nab Guerrero by a step. What a great play, maybe one of the best Volpe’s ever made in the big leagues.

The Yankees are off Thursday as they travel back to New York where this weekend they host the never-ending annoyance that is the Tampa Bay Rays. Yep, new season, and I still hate that team as much as ever.

The Rays go into the finale of their series with the Angels Thursday with a 10-9 record. They lost the first game Monday, rallied to tie the game Tuesday with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, then tied the game in the 10th and 11th innings, fell behind again in the 13th, but pulled out a 7-6 victory with two runs, the last coming on an Amed Rosario RBI single. Typical annoying Rays.

What wasn’t typical is what happened Wednesday night. Down 3-2 with two outs in the eighth, it was Rosario again with a go-ahead two-run homer. However, closer Pete Fairbanks coughed it up in the ninth and they lost 5-4. I happened to be watching when all that happened and it pleased me to no end.

The Rays haven’t announced their starting pitchers but for the Yankees, Friday at 7:05 on YES it’s Clarke Schmidt (3.68 ERA); Saturday at 1:05 p.m. on YES it’s Nestor Cortes (4.50); and Sunday at 1:35 on YES it’s Luis Gil (3.86).

⚾ Had the Yankees not rallied to win, the Orioles would have moved into first place in the AL East because they have now found their stride after a sputtering start and have won four in a row. They completed a three-game sweep of the Twins Wednesday with a 4-2 victory as Cedric Mullins walked it off with a two-run homer in the ninth.

The big story, though, was starting pitcher Al Suarez, a 34-year-old Venezuelan who made his first MLB appearance since Sept. 26, 2017 and pitched 5.2 scoreless three-hit innings. He was called up from Triple-A to start for Tyler Wells who went on the injured list with elbow inflammation and the Twins couldn’t touch him.

“I think I enjoyed this moment more than the first time I got called up. It’s amazing for me, and a good feeling to be here,” said Suárez, who had a 4.51 ERA in 40 games (12 starts) for the Giants in 2016 and 2017. “I worked hard for it. I think when you work hard and you have faith in something, it happens.”

The Orioles just feel inevitable. The team is stacked with great young players, they play with joy and confidence, and they just have it going on down there at Camden Yards. And hey, when you pull some dude up who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues in more than six years and he does this, yeah, it’s only a matter of time before they’re ahead of the Yankees and pulling away.

⚾ The Mets have certainly bounced back from their dreadful 0-5 start. They finished off a three-game sweep of a Pirates team that had arrived in New York leading the NL Central with an 11-5 record and then scored just five runs in the three games. Wednesday the Mets rolled 9-1 behind two former Yankees.

Luis Severino improved to 2-1 with six innings of five-hit ball and the only run he allowed was unearned so his ERA is down to 2.14. Figures, right? And Harrison Bader hit a two-run homer, as did Starling Marte, while unheralded Tyrone Taylor continued his surprising start with three hits and two RBI which raised his average to .341. The Mets have now won 10 of their last 13.

⚾ More ex-Yankee news. Michael King, the key piece going back to San Diego in the Soto trade, had a no-hitter for 6.2 innings in Milwaukee before Willy Adames broke it up. And then in the eighth, King was still in the game and he gave up a single to Brice Turang. He quickly stole second so the Padres brought in another ex-Yankee, Wandy Peralta, and he hung the undeserved loss on King by allowing a two-out RBI single to Blake Perkins for a 1-0 Brewers victory.

What a bummer for King who has a 3.33 ERA in five appearances for the Padres. Peralta has been great, by the way. He has pitched 11 times and his ERA is 0.90 and this was just the third inherited runner he has allowed to score. I really wish the Yankees had re-signed him.

⚾ The Astros keep finding ways to lose and they’re now 6-14 after losing 5-4 to the Braves. Houston led 4-2 but in the top of the eighth Ryan Pressly coughed it up thanks to a single, a double by Austin Riley and an error on first baseman Jose Abreu that allowed one run to score. Orlando Arcia then hit a tying sacrifice fly before Pressly ended the inning when he struck out Jarred Kelenic with men on second and third.

The Braves then went ahead in the 10th on Arcia’s RBI single and Atlanta’s closer, Raisel Iglesias, got Jeremy Pena to ground into a game-ending double play in the bottom half to complete Atlanta’s three-game sweep. Justin Verlander might be back this weekend so maybe he injects some life into the Astros.

Earlier in the game, Ronald Acuna Jr. finally hit his first home run of the season. The man who in 2023 became the first player in MLB history to hit at least 40 home runs and steal 70 bases went deep in the fifth inning, ending a drought that reached 79 at bats.

⚾ In Boston, the Red Sox had dropped the first two games against the Guardians but then Tanner Houck took the mound Wednesday and he pitched a complete game three-hit shutout with nine strikeouts and needing just 94 pitches. It was the first complete game in MLB this season and Boston’s first since June 6, 2022. The game took one hour, 49 minutes to play and the only bad thing about that is Boston won. Houck is now 3-1 with a 1.35 ERA.