It was a good, ol’ fashioned pitchers’ duel in the Bronx on Wednesday night, one that we had to wait patiently for due to a lengthy rain delay. Two young, burgeoning aces who burst on the scene during last year’s postseason went toe-to-toe in a big midweek divisional matchup, and it lived up to the billing.
Toronto’s pitching was excellent from top-to-bottom for nine innings, only getting in trouble on some bloop hits in the seventh and ninth innings. The Yankees matched that for eight innings of their own, but the difference in this game proved to be the one inning all night where the pitching faltered.
Cam Schlittler’s terrific night fell apart thanks to bad command, great at-bats, and a little bit of bad luck in the seventh inning, allowing the Blue Jays to score both of their runs that would prove to be enough to win this one. The Yankees avoided a shutout with a late rally in the ninth, but were never able to get the big hit as they dropped this one, 2-1.
This ballgame finally kicked off after a two-hour, five-minute rain delay, and Schlittler came out firing. A leadoff single by George Springer was quickly erased on a nicely turned 4-6-3 double play before the Yankees’ young ace ripped a 99.6-mph fastball past Daulton Varsho for his first strikeout to put up a quick zero. Trey Yesavage, who tormented a very similar lineup in Game 1 of last year’s ALDS, responded with a 1-2-3 inning.
Schlittler needed just 11 pitches to get through a 1-2-3 second inning, while the Yankees finally got their first-ever hit off Yesavage in the bottom of the second on a bloop double by Trent Grisham in a play that probably won’t make Buck Martinez the happiest man in the world. Ryan McMahon struck out swinging to strand the team’s first baserunner.
Toronto tried some small ball in the third after a Jesús Sánchez leadoff single and a sac bunt by Brandon Valenzuela, but Schlittler struck out the next two batters he faced to get through the third. It was another 1-2-3 frame for Yesavage in the bottom half.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a hard ground-ball single to start the fourth, but he didn’t move an inch after Schlittler reared back and struck out the next three batters he faced. Jazz Chisholm Jr. got the Yankees’ second hit off Yesavage in the bottom half, but was stranded.
Grisham came up lame on the double he blooped down in the second inning, but remained in the game for the time being. At some point, though, someone made the decision to take him out of the game, and he was replaced by Spencer Jones in the fifth inning.
Toronto got two singles off Schlittler in the fifth and had second and third with two outs and Springer at the plate, but the 25-year-old induced an inning-ending flyout. There was some better contact in the bottom half off a rolling Yesavage, but he still retired the side in order.
Guess what? It was more of the same in the sixth for both pitchers, but their pitch counts slowly climbed as they dug into the third time through. It would be Yesavage who would be pulled first, as he reached a season-high in pitch count after six masterful shutout innings with eight strikeouts, including three of Aaron Judge.
Even though Schlittler pitched into the seventh, he would not record an out. A tomahawk swinging bunt single by Pest of the Year Ernie Clement, a walk to Sánchez, and a bunt single by Valenzuela loaded the bases with nobody out for Andrés Giménez, who worked a gritty, 11-pitch at-bat for a go-ahead RBI walk and chased Schlittler from the game. Despite how it ended, you’ll take his outing of six-plus innings and allowing just two runs; he just didn’t get any help from the offense against an equally tough cookie.
It could’ve gotten a lot worse with the bases still loaded and nobody out with Jake Bird taking over on the mound, but he induced a 5-2 fielder’s choice from Springer, a sac fly from Vladdy, and struck out Varsho to end the frame with Toronto leading, 2-0.
Mason Fluharty took over for the Jays after the seventh-inning stretch and was immediately repaid for the generous luck that Toronto received in the top half, allowing a pair of bloop singles to Chisholm and Paul Goldschmidt to put the tying run on base. On a diving attempt on Goldy’s blooper, Sanchez was injured in right field and left the game, but Fluharty followed him right to the dugout for a pitching change.
Jeff Hoffman, best known for blowing Game 7 of last year’s Fall Classic, came in to face a pinch-hitting Amed Rosario and McMahon, and he retired both to strand the best scoring opportunity for the Yankees all night.
Yovanny Cruz made his major league debut in the eighth, and it was a beauty. He got up to 100.6 mph on his fastball and picked up a pair of strikeouts against Kazuma Okamoto and Clement on a pair of filthy sliders, showing the stuff that tantalized the organization when they decided to sign the wild flamethrower after spending 2025 with Boston’s Double-A affiliate.
You got the full Toronto pitching experience today. After six innings of having to deal with the league leader in arm angle in Yesavage, the Yankees had to figure out how to crack Tyler Rogers and his submarine style in the bottom of the eighth. As you might’ve expected, he retired the bottom of the order with relative ease.
Cruz delivered another terrific inning in the ninth, finishing it off with a strikeout of Giménez to send it to the bottom of the ninth. Louie Varland would look to close things out against the heart of the Yankees’ order, and there would be some intrigue after a one-out double by Cody Bellinger and an infield single by Chisholm, but only one run would come across on a Goldschmidt RBI groundout as the tying run was stranded on second base.
The Yankees and Blue Jays wrap up this four-game series in the Bronx tomorrow night at 7:05 pm on YES. It’ll be Carlos Rodón in his first home start of the season against a likely bullpen game for the Blue Jays.