After a wonderful Saturday afternoon full of sunshine and perfect baseball weather in which the Yankees’ fearsome lineup missed scoring chances against a river of mediocre pitchers from The North, the ninth inning provided the biggest chance for the hosts to delete three hours of frustration in which they didn’t score.
Daniel Hudson, the sixth Blue Jays pitcher, walked Aaron Hicks to start the ninth while nursing a two-run lead. Gleyber Torres and Brett Gardner flied out in front of DJ LeMahieu’s single to center that moved Hicks to second. Aaron Judge’s fourth hit of the game, a single off third baseman Brandon Drury’s glove, scored Hicks, put LeMahieu at third and brought Luke Voit to the plate.
In his first game back from the injured list, Voit looked at full-count pitch that ended a frustrating 2-1 loss that was witnessed by 43,472 Yankee Stadium customers who had very little to get excited about other than the Yankees avoided being blanked for the first time this season.
“They used their whole bullpen and we were never able to get the big hit,’’ Judge said. “They kept us off balance and we weren’t able to get that big hit with guys on base.’’
Judge, who went 4-for-5 (all singles) and was called out on a questionable 3-2 pitch to end the seventh with Gardner (2-for-4) on base, was encouraged by the Blue Jays using five relievers.
“I am looking forward to [Sunday]. Their whole bullpen was basically used,’’ Judge said of the Blue Jays, who will start Marcus Stroman — perhaps a future teammate of Judge’s — on Sunday.
The Yankees’ fourth loss in eight games since returning from two wins over the Red Sox in London didn’t initially cost them ground in the AL East. The second-place Rays dropped a 2-1 decision to the awful Orioles in the early game of a doubleheader and remained 6 ½ lengths back.
J.A. Happ (7-5) blanked the light-hitting Blue Jays (last in AL with a .232 average entering Saturday’s action) through five innings, but was hurt in the sixth when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled with one out and the left-handed hitting Cavan Biggio blooped a shift-beating single to left. Adam Ottavino surfaced from the pen to strike out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looking, but couldn’t do anything about Randal Grichuk dropping a bloop single into right-center that scored two runs.
“I have been fortunate to get some big outs, today wasn’t that day,’’ Ottavino said.
Nor was it a day for the Yankees to hit in the clutch, something that hasn’t happened in the past four games. Edwin Encarnacion grounded out to end the first against Clayton Richard with two on. Gary Sanchez lined out to finish the fifth with two on and watched Grichuk make a head-first diving catch of a sinking liner to end the fifth. The frustration mounted in the seventh when Judge faced former Yankee David Phelps with two outs and Gardner on first. Phelps went 3-2 and slipped a called strike past Judge he disagreed with.
“I was upset because that could be the ballgame,’’ said Judge, who had some words but nothing dramatic with plate umpire Andy Fletcher. “A walk right there and Voit comes up and it is a three-run homer. Situations like that, it’s tough. I voiced my opinion, but I can’t get tossed in that situation because I knew I would come back up in the ninth.’’
Judge said he felt some All-Star break rust, but in the past 12 games he is hitting .372 (16-for-43) with four homers and nine RBIs.
Yet, four singles and one RBI wasn’t enough Saturday to get by the hapless Blue Jays.