TORONTO — Ben Rice unleashed on a full-count, down-and-in slider from Braydon Fisher and then stood and watched the ball sail into the right-field stands. As a spattering of boos rained down from the Rogers Centre crowd, Rice looked toward the New York Yankees dugout, which was celebrating the tie-breaking shot.
The ninth-inning home run from the Yankees’ first baseman stood up as the game-winner, before things got out of hand with a Jose Caballero three-run homer off Tommy Nance as the Toronto Blue Jays fell, 8-3, on Sunday in front of 41,596.
“It's how that team's built, man,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “They can hit home runs. They hit a lot of them, so we gotta give credit to them. But it's, I think, just missed location with some pitches.”
The loss in the rubber match of the series dropped the Blue Jays’ record to 34-38 on the season while the club fell to 10 games behind the Yankees in the American League East and two games behind the Athletics, who hold the third wild-card spot.
Toronto’s lineup was short-handed on Sunday, with shortstop Andres Gimenez a late scratch due to wrist soreness and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., sidelined Saturday with back tightness, remaining out.
On the season, the Blue Jays are hitting .235 with runners in scoring position to sit 26th in MLB, while their .661 OPS in those situations ranks dead last. Such issues plagued the Blue Jays in Saturday’s 3-1 loss, as the club went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, while on Sunday, a 2-for-9 mark didn’t help matters.
“I felt like we missed some pitches to hit. (That) really was the biggest thing,” said Schneider, who was ejected from the game in the eighth inning after arguing a balk call on right-hander Jeff Hoffman that moved Jazz Chisholm from second to third base.
“It flips quick,” added the manager while discussing timely hitting. “It can flip on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. You can have a stretch where it's really good, but when you're playing tight games, you need to get them. You need to get those hits.”
Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins said he wants his hitters to be “selectively aggressive.”
“I want them to be hunting a part of the plate, a half of the plate,” Popkins said prior to the game. “I don't want them to be aggressive on all pitches because. Pitchers know we're very aggressive. If they're throwing pitches around the zone, especially in those situations, you're exposed if you're just looking for everything. So, I would say be aggressive on the half of the plate they're looking for.”
Left-hander Patrick Corbin started for the Blue Jays and was coming off the worst start of his season, a five-run, three-inning performance against the Phillies on Monday.
Corbin allowed some loud contact and surrendered seven hits over his 3.2 frames on Sunday yet limited the damage to just two runs while navigating twice through the Yankees lineup.
The 36-year-old veteran, signed by the Blue Jays to a one-year, $1-million deal by the Blue Jays in the first week of April, has provided mixed results over his 13 starts. The club owns a 6-7 record in those outings, with Corbin pitching at least five innings just seven times while posting an overall 4.57 ERA.
The Blue Jays will have a decision to make on Corbin in the coming days as the starting rotation continues to return to health. Right-hander Shane Bieber tossed five innings during a rehab outing in triple-A on Thursday and likely needs just one more start before rejoining the big-league club. At that point, Corbin and right-hander Max Scherzer would become candidates to be removed from the rotation to make room.
Spencer Miles entered Sunday’s game in relief of Corbin and allowed one run over 2.2 frames, bridging the gap to the Blue Jays’ leverage relievers. Mason Fluharty and Hoffman provided lockdown appearances before the Yankees got to Fisher and Nance in the ninth. Of note, Blue Jays’ right-hander Louis Varland was down on Sunday after throwing a combined 29 pitches in Friday and Saturday’s contests.
“Hopefully just getting a couple starters back here can maybe limit some of (the relievers’) innings a little bit,” Corbin said. “But they've stepped up in a big way and hopefully we, as a staff, can pitch deeper and give them some opportunities to maybe not work that day.”
Up next for the Blue Jays is an off-day on Monday, followed by a six-game road trip with series against the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs.
Schneider said Guerrero Jr. felt better as Sunday’s game progressed and the first baseman was going to pinch hit in the ninth if the score remained close. The manager expressed hope that both Guerrero Jr. and Gimenez would be in the lineup for Tuesday’s series opener at Fenway Park.
After a 4-5 homestand, the hope is that better results lie ahead for the Blue Jays.
“You'd obviously love to win the series and kind of end on a good note,” said Corbin. “But we've had a stretch against some pretty good teams and just kind of been in games and maybe not have won a couple of those (when) maybe we should have. I think the good thing about this team is everyone comes in the same whether we won or lost, and they're prepared. That's what you like.
“There's so many highs and lows in this game. And just to see how people react to that, it shows there's no panic here.”
— With files from Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi
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