Yankees 8, Blue Jays 3 -- a series win, not a laugher, at least not until the sixth inning turned into one. The Bombers were tied at two for most of the afternoon before a two-out rally blew the doors off, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trent Grisham each tacked on solo home runs just to make sure nobody forgot the final score.
The rubber match goes to New York, 2-1 in the series. After Saturday's 4-3 gut punch, this was exactly the response you wanted.
The Sixth Inning Got Away From Toronto
Tied at two after both sides traded sacrifice flies in the middle innings, the Blue Jays' bullpen walked into a buzzsaw. Spencer Jones led off with a single (his second hit of the day, following a run-scoring double back in the second), Jazz Chisholm Jr. dropped a bunt single of all things, and by the time Trent Grisham drew a bases-loaded walk, George Lombard Jr. had already crossed the plate.
That walk was a 15.3-point win-probability swing, the single biggest of the afternoon. Ben Rice wasn't done -- his two-run single one batter later, scoring Jones and Chisholm, turned a one-run lead into a laugher at 5-2.
Two batters, five runs, one inning. That's the whole game right there.
Star of the Game: Spencer Jones
Everybody's going to remember the home runs. They should. But the guy who set the table all day was Spencer Jones, and the numbers back it up -- his line of a double, a walk, and two hits carried the highest win-probability swing on the field at +22.8 points, well ahead of Rice (+13.4) and Grisham (+8.4).
He opened the scoring in the second with an RBI double, then started the sixth-inning breakout with the leadoff single that eventually scored on Rice's knock. (He also got caught stealing at some point, so nobody's rushing to hand him a plaque just yet.)
The Arms That Made It Work
Carlos Rodón wasn't especially sharp -- four innings, two runs (one earned), two walks, and two doubles surrendered -- but he kept Toronto around that two-run mark through the middle innings before handing it to the pen. That's when Paul Blackburn stole a game nobody expected him to steal: two clean, scoreless innings, no hits, no walks, working right through the heart of that sixth-inning rally. He walked away with his fifth win of the season. Ryan Yarbrough picked up the hold behind him.
On the other side, José Soriano actually punched out seven over five innings for Toronto, but he walked three, and it caught up with him -- five earned runs, the loss, and his record drops to 10-7.
Then, because a comfortable lead apparently wasn't enough, Jazz led off the seventh by turning on a fly ball and sending it 364 feet to right (Bellinger had reached ahead of him, so it went as a two-run shot). Grisham matched him in the eighth with a no-doubt 413-foot blast to dead center, because the assignment that inning was apparently "hit it far." Toronto got a run back in the eighth on an Alejandro Kirk single, but by then it was academic.
The Call That Paid Off
Handing the ball to Blackburn with the game tied isn't the flashiest decision Aaron Boone will make all season, but it's the one that mattered most. Two scoreless innings from a guy who isn't the loudest name in that bullpen bought enough time for the offense to find its footing (if you want to nitpick, Boone rode him straight through the biggest swing of the game with the bases loaded -- bold or lucky, take your pick, but it worked).
Three back of Tampa Bay with plenty of season left. The margin's still uncomfortably thin, but afternoons like this one are exactly how you close it.
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.
