TORONTO – The replays will surely focus on the pageantry of George Springer’s seventh-inning grand slam, and irresistibly so. It was a no-doubt drive, deposited into an ocean of red and blue shirts, highlighting the Blue Jays’ convincing Canada Day thumping of the Yankees.
But those scenes -- Springer raising his right fist in the air, bathed in sunlight from the open Rogers Centre roof, an entire nation seemingly celebrating behind him -- likely do not occur without J.C. Escarra’s catcher’s interference miscue earlier in the frame.
Sloppy plays like that have piled up for the Yankees of late, a trend that continued in their 12-5 loss on Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s on me,” Escarra said. “I intended to get as close as possible, but obviously not letting that happen. I didn’t help my team win today or yesterday. It shouldn’t have happened, but it’s something I can control. I was just too deep into there.”
The Yankees’ lead in the American League East was seven games as recently as May 28, but they have dropped 17 of 30 since then, allowing the Blue Jays and Rays to close the gap. New York leads Toronto by one game and Tampa Bay by 1 1/2 games headed into the third game of a four-game set against the Blue Jays.
“There’s a lot of really good teams in this division planning on making the playoffs every year,” said Max Fried. “We knew this wasn’t going to be easy. We’re putting in the work every day going out to try to win baseball games. It hasn’t been the best right now, but we’re confident we can get it together and have a strong second half.”
The seventh inning shifted when Luke Weaver thought he’d struck out pinch-hitter Addison Barger, which would have placed runners at first and second with two outs.
Instead, a review challenge showed Barger’s bat had clipped Escarra’s glove on a checked swing, the backstop’s second such miscue in as many games. Escarra said he was inching forward, intending to frame a called strike for Weaver.
That loaded the bases with one out, setting up Ernie Clement’s go-ahead single and Springer’s grand slam -- his second homer of the game.
“That was a confusing one; that was one I didn’t see in real time,” Weaver said of the interference. “I was trying to make sense of it quickly. It’s pretty devastating, honestly. I feel like that’s a really unfortunate part of our game. I don’t think, personally, that belongs in our game. I think there should be some type of discretion to it.
“I understand there are moments where it’s very egregious and they hit the glove on a full swing, but you feel like you earned something there, and it was taken from you. It’s out of my control at that point, but it’s just a real silly thing to happen.”
Even though it wasn’t charged in the box score, a fielding miscue set up the Jays’ other big inning, a four-run fourth against Fried.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. threw wildly to first base on a Davis Schneider grounder, pulling Paul Goldschmidt off the bag for what was scored an infield hit, though a good throw would have ended the inning.
After a walk, Andrés Giménez powered a three-run homer to center field, giving Toronto its first lead.
“Realistically, that’s a tough play,” Fried said. “I have to do my job to be able to get out of that and keep making pitches. I can’t walk the next guy, and then I left a sinker that was a little flat up. A good hitter made me pay.”
It’s fair to ask if the Yankees are fielding their best defensive alignment, given their current roster configuration. Chisholm has more range than DJ LeMahieu, who is a more experienced option at third base. A quick fix could be to flip Chisholm back to second base, the position he spent all winter and spring preparing to play.
“We’ll talk through that stuff,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I think both guys are really talented defenders.”
Toronto didn’t play cleanly, either. The Yanks tied the game on back-to-back errors in the seventh, as the third baseman Clement booted a Giancarlo Stanton grounder and first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. couldn’t make a play on a ball hit by Jasson Domínguez, who also had a two-run single earlier.
But Domínguez’s first-inning, bases-loaded knock off Kevin Gausman was not a sign of things to come for the Yanks, who finished the day 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, leaving 11 men on base.
“That is baseball, in a league where [most players are] hitting .240, .250,” Boone said. “You’re going to have stretches where that’s a struggle. We understand that to go on a roll and win a lot of games, you’ve got to cash in when you have those chances.”