For the first time in 57 years, the New York Yankees are in town. They arrive in complete crisis.
The Yankees open a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays Monday night in Sahlen Field in the midst of a 5-13 slump, with their offense riddled by injuries and producing just about nothing. They lost three straight games over the weekend in Baltimore, scoring just five runs in the process.
"I think we’re frustrated. I think guys are pissed off. Understandable," manager Aaron Boone said after Sunday's 5-1 defeat. "But we've got to get through it. We’ve got to fight our way through it. We get on a plane right now up to Buffalo and we’ve got a big series starting tomorrow. We have to find a way to put a little bit more pressure offensively to get going here."
#Yankees manager Aaron Boone: “I think we’re frustrated. I think guys are pissed off. ... We’ve got to fight our way through it. We get on a plane right now up to Buffalo and we’ve got a big series starting tomorrow.” #Bluejays pic.twitter.com/98JxAjDuhb
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) September 6, 2020
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The Yankees started the season 16-6 before the current slide has dropped them to 21-19. They are 7-0 against the Boston Red Sox this season -- and just 14-19 against everybody else. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays (22-18) have improved to the fifth seed in the American League with a 15-7 record over their last 22 games.
The Yankees last played in Buffalo on Aug. 19, 1963, when they managed just two hits in a 5-0 exhibition loss to the International League All-Stars. The game attracted a War Memorial Stadium crowd of 26,523, then a record for a baseball game in Buffalo.
Starting pitchers
The Blue Jays will miss both Gerrit Cole and Masahiro Tanaka in this series, after they both pitched over the weekend for the Yankees in Baltimore.
Monday: Hyun-Jin Ryu (3-1, 2.51) vs. Jordan Montgomery (2-2, 5.76)
Tuesday: Taijaun Walker (3-2, 3.26 total, 1-0, 1.54 for Toronto) vs. J.A. Happ (1-1, 4.68)
Wednesday: Tanner Roark (2-1, 5.74) vs. Deivi Garcia (0-1, 3.38).
Ryu has now gone six straight starts with zero or one earned run and 5+ innings pitched, compiling a 1.32 ERA. The six starts is now the longest single-season streak in team history, and matches Dave Stieb (1988-89) for the longest overall by a Blue Jays pitcher.
Key injuries
Yankees sluggers Aaron Judge (calf) and Giancarlo Stanton (hamstring) are both out. Stanton has not played since Aug. 9 while Judge has played one game since Aug. 14. Infielder Gio Urshela (elbow) went on the IL last week
Blue Jays outfielder Teoscar Hernandez is still awaiting a second MRI exam after missing Sunday's game in Boston with rib soreness after an awkward swing in Saturday night's game. Manager Charlie Montoyo said today that Hernandez, whose 14 home runs this season are one shy of Mike Trout's American League lead, still has swelling in the rib area.
Shortstop Bo Bichette, who was hitting .361 overall and .563 in Sahlen Field before tweaking his knee on Aug. 15, is getting close to a return. He was hitting and taking groundballs over the weekend in Boston and is serving as a DH in a game Monday at the Alternate Training Site in Rochester. He's scheduled to play shortstop on Tuesday.
The AL playoff picture
Remember, it's eight teams in each league this year: Three division winners, three second-place teams and two wild cards. First round is best of three pitting seeds 1/8, 2/7, 3/6 and 4/5. The Blue Jays passed the Astros, Twins and Yankees in the seedings Sunday by moving into second in the AL East.
The current standings:
1. Rays (East 1) 28-13
2. White Sox (Central 1) 26-15
2. A's (West 1) 23-14
4. Indians (C2) 25-15
5. Blue Jays (E2) 22-18
6. Astros (W2) 21-19
7. Twins (WC) 25-17
8. Yankees (WC) 21-19
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9. Orioles 19-21
10. Tigers 18-20
11. Mariners 18-22
The Blue Jays overcame an early 3-0 deficit and scored 10 of the game's next 11 runs in Sunday's 10-8 win in Boston.
"That's why I was so excited about this win," said Montoyo. "We felt like we needed to win before we go into that series and we did after the loss (Saturday) so we're going into that with good momentum. Our staff has pitched a lot but we got our ace tomorrow (Ryu) so I feel good about that."
Sahlen Sluggers
The Blue Jays are 8-5 in Sahlen Field. They have scored at least five runs in 10 of those games, and lead MLB in both runs per game at home (6.3) and on-base percentage (.360). On their temporary homefield, they are second in batting (.286), home runs per game (2.08), slugging (.518) and OPS (.878).
Top hitters in Sahlen Field
Rowdy Tellez .395-5-13
Teoscar Hernandez .333-6-13
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. .320-3-11
Randal Grichuk .296-4-8
