Yankees 3, Blue Jays 1, and it took exactly one loud swing from Spencer Jones to make sure Cam Schlittler's night held up.
Jones turned on a 2-1 cutter from Spencer Arrighetti in the bottom of the 2nd and sent it into the right-field seats -- 108.8 mph off the bat, a 43-degree launch angle, 385 feet by the time it landed. Trent Grisham scored ahead of him. Two batters, two runs, and the Yankees had a lead they wouldn't give back the rest of the night.
The Swing That Decided It
Nothing else in this game came close to matching it. Jones' homer was worth a 13.3 percent swing in the Yankees' win probability -- the single biggest play of the night, in either direction. It even went to replay review, which upheld the call, and the lead held right along with it.
Arrighetti never really recovered. He was out after 3.1 innings, three earned runs on his ledger, tagged for the loss that dropped him to 7-6 on the year. Toronto had rolled into the Bronx having gone 14-7 in its previous 21 games, playing like a club that wanted no part of a fourth-place finish. For one night, at least, the Yankees made them look like it.
Star of the Game: Jones
Jones finished 1-for-3 with the homer, two RBIs, a run scored, and a strikeout mixed in -- his 7th homer of the season. One swing decided the game, and it was his.
(Not a bad way to spend a Friday night in the Bronx.)
He wasn't the guy anyone circled beforehand as the one who'd flip this game, and that's kind of the point. Nights like this are exactly why the Yankees keep running him out there, patience and all. The rest of the lineup didn't do much against Arrighetti or the parade of Toronto relievers behind him, so it was Jones' homer or nothing.
Schlittler Deals, Bullpen Closes It Out
The Yankees tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the 4th when Jose Caballero lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring George Lombard Jr. and making it 3-0. Good thing, too -- Alejandro Kirk got one back for Toronto in the top of the 5th, singling through the right side off Schlittler to score Brett Bateman and cut the margin to two.
That was as close as the Blue Jays got. Schlittler worked around it, finished six innings on 96 pitches, and walked off with his 11th win of the season (six hits, one earned run, three walks, four strikeouts). Not his cleanest outing -- three walks is three walks -- but plenty good enough against a lineup that's been hitting everything in sight lately.
From there, Aaron Boone went to the formula: Brent Headrick, Paul Blackburn, and David Bednar, one inning apiece. They combined for three scoreless frames on a single hit -- a ground-rule double off the bat of Brandon Valenzuela in the 9th that went exactly nowhere. Bednar worked around it for save No. 30. (Nobody in the Bronx panicked. There wasn't much reason to.)
Fifth Straight, and the Race Is Tightening
This one comes on the heels of a road sweep of the Orioles, capped by a 6-1 win Thursday, and it pushes the Yankees to 73-55 -- five wins in a row, second place in the East, three games back with a real shot at closing that gap before September. Toronto sits at 63-67 now, a record that undersells how dangerous this lineup has looked the last three weeks, and this loss snapped whatever rhythm they'd built.
Two more against the Blue Jays this weekend. Keep stacking wins like this and that three-game gap doesn't last long.
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.
