Yankees 6, Blue Jays 4: Soto sparks comeback win

18/04/2024 00:49

The superstar reached base five times in one of the year's best victories.

For eight innings, the only good things about this game were Juan Soto and Oswaldo Cabrera. The twosome represented the only real threats at the plate, with Soto driving in a pair of runs as the Yankees tried to claw back from deficits. Then in the ninth, one of the more thrilling innings in recent memory, New York came all the way back. The Captain put them ahead, and they salvaged a game in this Toronto series with a 6-4 victory.

We're not going to start with the ninth inning; we're actually going to start with the eighth and with Mr. Soto. After already plating the Yankees' first run with a double earlier in the game, Childish Bambino seemed to wake up the whole dugout on a long, long fly ball:

New York was still down two with just five outs to give, but that home run felt like a jolt to the rest of the boys. Leading off the ninth, the previously-hitless Giancarlo Stanton got in on the fun — 446 feet worth of fun at that.

Mark that as career homer No. 407 for Stanton, tying Brooklyn legend Duke Snider for 57th on the all-time list.

Gleyber Torres also seemed to get a spark from Soto, as he knocked a single up the middle after striking out in each of his three previous plate appearances. I was trying to come up with just the right metaphor for how lost Gleyber has been lately, but hopefully that big hit helped spur something in the second baseman. Like last night, Alex Verdugo thumped a ninth-inning double to put two men in scoring position, with the score now 4-3.

Jays manager John Schneider elected to go with lefty Tim Mayza, and Aaron Boone's corresponding move was to pinch-hit Jose Trevino for Austin Wells. I didn't love that decision, but boy did I love the result:

Tie game, and two batters later, who else was at the dish but Juan Soto. He is perpetually in the center of the action, becoming more and more the protagonist of this season with each at-bat. This time, he battled for a walk, shaking off a poor strike zone to reach base for the fifth time in the game, and setting up a huge moment for Aaron Judge.

Judge had been hitless the entire series at Rogers Centre, after showing some promising signs of warmth in Cleveland. For whatever reason, the Jays had had his number. Schneider even elected to leave Mayza in against the powerful righty. I imagine he regrets doing that now.

Marcus Stroman really only got bit once, giving up a long home run to Daulton Varsho in the second inning. Outside of that, he continued to impress as the most dependable arm in the rotation right now, with nine of his 16 outs coming on the ground on top of a pair of strikeouts. One of those absolutely bamboozled Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

We did see some splitters and slurves that Stroman couldn't locate as much as he would have liked, which added to the pitch count and had him yanked before the end of the sixth. I would have liked a little more efficiency given the four innings of bullpen work yesterday and Luis Gil only going five innings on Monday.

Bullpen management is a challenge when your starters combine to throw 14.1 innings in a three-game set. More to the point, the more relievers you use in any one game, the greater the chance you're going to see a guy that just doesn't have a good feel for his fastball, or his mechanics are just a bit off that day. Caleb Ferguson had the lefty-lefty advantage against Varsho in the seventh, missed his spot and Varsho went deep for the second time in the game.

Ian Hamilton, who is just about the best relief pitcher in baseball, also ran into trouble taking over for Ferguson. He loaded the bases and gave up a sac fly that loomed as a big insurance run for the Jays. Of course it's not a bad idea to bring Hamilton into a close game, but the more you ask of relief pitchers, the more they'll just have a bad day. Clay Holmes at least worked a relatively smooth ninth for the win, with a big assist from Anthony Volpe.

I know some readers won't believe this, but I have played organized sports before, and these are the kinds of wins that pull teams together. Yeah, losing the series stinks, but a comeback win where everyone is suddenly grinding through at bats, getting signs of life from cold hitters … we'll have to see how the rest of the season plays out, but it wouldn't surprise me if by October we were talking about this Wednesday matinee as one of the year's turning points.

The Yankees' weary pitching staff will no doubt enjoy the offday tomorrow before opening a weekend series in the Bronx against the Rays. Clarke Schmidt will get the ball to start the AL East showdown, and first pitch on Friday night is at 7:05pm.

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