TORONTO — With a late lead, it looked as if the Yankees had another win in tack with their vaunted bullpen ready to hold on. However, things didn’t script out the way Aaron Boone wanted it to go as New York fell to the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-4, at the Rogers Centre.
Justin Smoak led the charge for Toronto as he had two home runs and six RBIs in the night. His biggest highlight came when he took David Robertson deep in the eighth inning for a grand slam.
New York took the early 4-0 lead, scoring all of its runs in the third inning off of Marcus Stroman. Didi Gregorius and Neil Walker each had RBI hits, while Brandon Drury hit his first Yankee home run to extend the lead to four.
You're gonna wanna turn your sound on for this one. pic.twitter.com/WdNRQztrvT
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 1, 2018
With Sonny Gray only being able to go four-plus innings of one-run ball, Chad Green relieved him and pitched two shutout innings.
In the seventh inning, however, with Tommy Kahnle on the hill, Justin Smoak would hit a two-run home run to cut the Yankee lead to 4-3. David Robertson would have to come into the game and stop further trouble. In the next inning, Robertson would intentionally walk Josh Donaldson to load the bases for Toronto, with Smoak once again at the plate. While Houdini has worked out of situations like these before, it was not to be tonight as Smoak hit his second home run of the day.
Seung-hwan Oh would close out the Yankees in the ninth, with closer Roberto Osuna getting the night off.
In the second inning, Aaron Judge had his first outfield assist of the season as he threw out Russell Martin at the plate with a strong throw from right field.
Run on Aaron Judge … we dare you! pic.twitter.com/8qikMi8jKz
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) April 1, 2018
Miguel Andujar made his season debut at designated hitter, after being called up to replace the injured Billy McKinney.
The Yankees will play their home opener tomorrow, as they face the Tampa Rays, with Jordan Montgomery on the mound.
Current Yankees Record: 2-2
