TORONTO – The Yankees had a chance to rediscover Toronto during Thursday’s off-day, pleasantly exploring a city that provided little joy last season. Their return to Rogers Centre offered a reminder of why packing passports has become such a chore.
Ryan Weathers was thumped for six runs en route to a fifth-inning hook, and Trent Grisham exited early due to injury as the Yankees fell to the Blue Jays, 8-5, on Friday evening, snapping their four-game winning streak.
“I want to win; I’m a competitor,” Weathers said. “I’m sick of putting us in a hole right now, the last couple of outings. It’s not a good feeling. You want to win ballgames as much as you can. I’ve just got to get back to executing pitches better.”
Last season, the Yankees lost eight of nine games in Toronto, where they were outscored 75-41, including the first two contests in the American League Division Series. Grisham explained the struggles succinctly: “It’s a good ballclub over there.”
“Last year was rough in this building for us,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game, “but it’s a new year, a new opportunity.”
With the Yankees facing a Blue Jays team that is getting healthier and chasing playoff position after its slow start, the first couple of innings felt like a Canadian television replay.
Alejandro Kirk came off the injured list to belt a booming double in the first, and Kazuma Okamoto reached the distant 500 level in left field for a two-run homer. George Springer added a two-run shot in the second inning off Weathers, who has surrendered multiple homers in four of his past five starts, including seven in his last three -- all losses.
“I’m just throwing bad pitches. That’s all I’ve got,” Weathers said. “I felt like I executed the pitch decent to Okamoto. He put a good swing on it. I obviously didn’t throw a good pitch to Springer. I’ve got to make better pitches.”
Boone said Weathers made “some two-strike mistakes,” noting that the home run damage has come on different pitches.
“The stuff is good; he’s throwing well,” Boone said. “Unfortunately, some of his mistakes have left the ballpark.”
How, Weathers was asked, can that be corrected?
“When you’re in two-strike counts, you don’t throw the ball in the zone,” he said.
Down early to Trey Yesavage, who’d pitched 11 1/3 scoreless innings in two previous starts against the Yankees, the visitors fought back. Paul Goldschmidt lifted a sacrifice fly, and Cody Bellinger cleared the right-field wall with a two-run homer facing Yesavage in the fifth.
"I thought we had good at-bats against him all night, frankly,” Boone said. “We pressured him early and weren’t able to get the big hit early to get to him, but we kept doing it. … I thought we did a good job up and down the lineup of making him throw strikes.”
A walk and double chased Yesavage in the sixth. Facing Mason Fluharty, Grisham ripped a two-run single but exited with right hamstring tightness.
Grisham has been among the Yankees’ most productive hitters of late, batting .370 (27-for-73) with two homers and eight RBIs in his past 19 games through Friday.
Boone said the Yankees would evaluate Grisham early Saturday and that activating Jasson Domínguez from his Minor League rehab assignment earlier than initially expected “could be in play.”
“Fortunately, as we’ve talked about all year, we feel like it’s one of the deeper rosters we’ve had in a while,” Boone said. “We’ve got capable people going in there and picking up any slack left. You never like key guys going down, but in a long season, that’s unfortunately part of it sometimes.”
Ernie Clement’s eighth-inning RBI double off Fernando Cruz provided additional insurance for Louis Varland, who set the Yanks down with a pair of strikeouts in a dominant ninth.