Three hits. Nobody home. And a Toronto bullpen that made it look easy.
The New York Yankees fell to the Blue Jays 2-0 on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, completing a series split that felt like a missed opportunity from the first pitch. Carlos Rodón pitched well enough to win. Spencer Miles made sure that didn't matter.
First Inning, Settled
The game was decided before the first inning ended, and not in any dramatic way.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. worked a walk off Rodón, promptly stole second base, and scored on a Daulton Varsho ground-ball double into left field. Cody Bellinger had no shot at it.
That was it. That's all Toronto needed.
For five innings, Rodón held them there -- 7 strikeouts, a 95-pitch effort, and a fastball that manager Aaron Boone called "terrific" after the game. The problem is that the Yankees had three hits to work with, went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, and stranded five baserunners who never looked especially dangerous. (The three hits were a Ben Rice single, a Spencer Jones single, and a Ryan McMahon double. That's not a lineup at work -- that's a lineup going through the motions.)
The Rule 5 Guy Nobody Knew About
If you want to understand why the Yankees lost this one, study Spencer Miles.
Toronto took Miles in the Rule 5 Draft last December -- a 25-year-old with 14 2/3 professional innings to his name who'd never pitched above Single-A in the Giants organization. The reaction around the league was roughly: "who?" A 25-year-old. Single-A ceiling. Zero profile.
Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, Miles answered the question. He took over in the third inning and gave the Blue Jays 4 1/3 innings of shutout work -- two hits, one walk, six strikeouts, 63 pitches. Career high by a mile. He pounded the zone with his sinker, mixed in his curveball, and the Yankees hitters looked uncomfortable from the first pitch to the last.
"It definitely helps," Miles said postgame. "Throwing strikes, and right now, I'm focusing on strike one and using my sinker. That's kind of my 'get out of jail free' card right now."
He's got one. The Yankees didn't find it.
Toronto manager John Schneider put it plainly when asked about his Rule 5 gamble paying off: "It looks the part, right? It's a repeatable delivery and he holds his stuff. He's got some pretty good weapons."
That's the understatement of the week in the Bronx.
Rodón's Night Deserved Better
Which is a shame, because Rodón gave the Yankees something real.
His first home start of 2026 -- he missed the first six weeks coming off surgery for loose bodies in his elbow -- wasn't a disaster by any measure. Five innings, three hits, one earned run, seven strikeouts, three walks, 95 pitches with 60 for strikes. Boone was complimentary. Rodón himself sounded encouraged.
"It's a step in the right direction," Rodón said. "I'd like to get deeper into games."
A fair self-assessment. The step forward is real. But Rodón's now 0-2 on the season with run support that's made it nearly impossible to build momentum, and Thursday was no different. He needed one inning of production and got nothing.
Judge and the Long Silence
You'll keep reading Aaron Judge's name in this space until something changes.
He went 0-for-4 with a ground-into-double-play on Thursday -- his third momentum-killing at-bat in the series. That's now 10 consecutive games without an RBI, the longest drought of his season. He finished 1-for-15 in this four-game set. Against the Blue Jays, at home, in a series the Yankees held 2-0 after Tuesday night.
"You don't want to split a series like that," Judge said after the game, "having an opportunity to take a series from them."
No, you don't. Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out four times. Paul Goldschmidt stranded two more runners to end the sixth. The bottom of the order couldn't scratch anything together. The Yankees produced two singles and a double all night, and that was the night.
George Springer -- who entered this week with just two home runs on the season -- hit two more during the series, including a solo shot off Camilo Doval's 2-2 slider in the seventh that stretched it to 2-0 and felt more like punctuation than damage. (Doval came on with one out in the seventh, inherited a 1-0 game, and gave it back five pitches later.)
The Yankees are 30-21, have lost nine of their last 13 games, and sit 4½ games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East.
Judge's drought ends when it ends. Friday would be good.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
