Yankees 16, Blue Jays 5: Soto and friends stop the bleeding

06/28/2024 10:48 PM

The Yankees set a season-high in runs as the offense finally erupted, snapping the losing streak.

This week has been an awful one for the Yankees, full of bad pitching, benchings, and scant offense outside of Aaron Judge. They entered play on Friday having lost four in a row and 9 of their last 11 games.

It took a little while, as for much of the game, a victory to stop the skid looked like it would be a challenge. But by the time the dust had settled at Rogers Centre, the Yankees had fully taken out their frustrations on the Blue Jays. New York exploded for seven runs in the ninth to make it a blowout 16-5 win.

Across the last couple years, Yusei Kikuchi had made four starts against the Yankees and in all of them, and he allowed one run or less, dominating in a way he hadn't against this team back in his Mariners days. However, this team currently has something those previous ones didn't: the powerful bat of Juan Soto.

After Kikuchi retired the first nine batters of the game and looked poised for another strong outing, Soto started to work his magic at the plate the second time through the order. If you're ever looking for an at-bat to highlight the impact Soto has when it comes to not budging on close pitches, check this out. It's one of those things where his plate discipline is so well known that if he didn't swing at it, then it wasn't a strike.

Two, maybe three, of those four pitches after a called first strike could've been reasonably called on the plate. And yet, each one was a ball on an evening in which the ump had been pitcher-friendly, contradicting the scouting report. Soto walked and was the first Yankee to reach base in the game.

After a Judge single, the Yankees managed to muster up a run on the basepaths and tie the game at 1-1 with terrific baserunning from Soto. First and second were filled and J.D. Davis hit a grounder toward second. Judge got caught in a rundown and Soto never stopped at third, scoring the Yankees' first run as Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s throw was just a tad too late.

A couple of innings later, the Yankees were trailing again as the Jays chased Marcus Stroman off the game in the fifth with a two-run spot. Luckily, the damage that could've been far worse was kept in check by Michael Tonkin, who closed the frame (more on that later).

Kikuchi caught the short end of the stick in the sixth when the Yankees' first two hitters reached safely on incredibly soft singles, setting up a major opportunity for Soto. In the blink of an eye, the Yankees took the 4-3 lead as Soto went yard, turning on a heater inside for his 20th homer of 2024:

That blast was enough for John Schneider to remove Kikuchi, ultimately a great decision for the Yanks, as no one apart from Soto was doing much against the lefty, and they would go on to punish the Jays' bullpen.

Three batters later, the lead was at 7-3 as Gleyber Torres' two-run bomb capped off a six-run rally.

Stroman certainly didn't look as dominant as Kikuchi in the evening, but he did manage to keep the Blue Jays' bats in check, even if his final line won't suggest that, allowing only one hard-hit ball. The three runs scored off the Yankees' starter came primarily due to his poor command, with three walks in 4.1 innings.

The Yankees' starter left the game in the fifth with the bases loaded. Even though things started a bit rocky as Tonkin hit the first batter he faced, the reliever shut the door on the Jays and kept the game at 3-1, allowing the Yanks enough time to get back in the game.

Toronto threatened with a run apiece in the sixth and seventh to make it 7-5. It'd all be for nothing as the Yankees scored two insurance runs in the eighth and then the floodgates opened in the ninth.

Facing Tim Mayza, the first four New York hitters all singled, with Judge's making it 11-5. Oswaldo Cabrera doubled to tack on another, and after a pitching change to Bowden Francis, Torres lifted a sacrifice fly to score Judge. Alex Verdugo and Jahmai Jones both singled, Jose Trevino doubled, and when Francis finally got third out, it was a 16-5 laugher.

The Yankees' 16 runs represented a season-high. Seven different batters got a hit in the ninth, and Jones had two. Back in the eighth, even DJ LeMahieu got in on the action with his first extra-base hit of the season, a RBI double.

The Yankees will look to take control of this series on Saturday with a 3:07pm ET start time. It'll be a battle of savvy veterans between Chris Bassitt and Nestor Cortes, who will look to make it four starts in a row of going at least six innings and three runs or fewer.

Box Score