The last road trip of the season begins in the Bronx, with three games against the also-ran New York Yankees.
Also-rans! I like the sound of that.
So what do they even have to play for, these also-ran Yankees? Besides making sure Gerrit Cole finally wins his first Cy Young?
They could do their GM a solid, in the unlikely event that ballplayers care about such trivial matters. This is Brian Cashman's twenty-sixth season as the Yankees GM, and that matches the tenure of the very first Yankees GM, the great Ed Barrow. Barrow and Cashman now share the record for longest term as any team's general manager. The Yankees have four World Series titles during Cashman's time. That falls far short of Barrow's ten championships, but Cashman has one achievement even Barrow couldn't match. Cashman's Yankees have never had a losing season. Even Barrow's Yankees lost more games than they won on one occasion (it was 1925, the year of Babe Ruth's legendary "bellyache.") The Blue Jays have had ten losing seasons during the same period, and Ross Atkins is the fourth Jays general manager Cashman has had to deal with.
The Yankees last losing season was in 1992, and they still need to win another five games in order to spare themselves, and their GM, such ignominy. Be good if they had to do that in Kansas City.
So many things have gone wrong for the 2023 Yankees that the fact that they have indeed still managed a winning record merits a little respect. But just a little, because a few of the things that went wrong were fairly predictable. If we know one thing in this life, it's that ballplayers past the age of 30 tend not to improve. They usually go the other way, and they very often get hurt while it's happening. Aaron Judge has been magnificent, which is not too surprising. He's also missed more than 50 games, which is also not too surprising - he's done it twice before. Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Josh Donaldson - all three of them looking up at the Mendoza Line, and only Stanton is still a Yankee. He's missed 50 games as well, as has Anthony Rizzo. And no one, except Judge and Gleyber Torres, has hit a lick.
There were issues on the mound, where proven quality starting pitchers submitted very disappointing performances. Not Gerrit Cole - he's been awesome. But Nestor Cortes who came out of nowhere with an outstanding All-Star season in 2022 has made just 12 rather ordinary starts. Free agent Carlos Rodon didn't make it onto the mound until July, and hasn't pitched very well since getting back in the rotation. Luis Severino, who last season appeared to have made it all the way back from three years of injuries, has been bad. Domingo German was erratic, and ended up on the restricted list.
The Story So Far
The Jays visited the Bronx way back in April, when we were all so much younger than we are today.
Fri 21 April: Toronto 6 New York 1 - Yusei Kikuchi was sharp, allowing just one run through six. Guerrero's two-run homer in the first gave him an early lead, and Belt added another two-run homer and a two-run double for additional support.
Sat 24 April: Toronto 2 New York 3 - Gerrit Cole and Alek Manoah threw zeroes at one another until the bullpens took over, and it was the Yankees striking first when Volpe reached Garcia for a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth. But the Jays tied it in the top of the ninth on Jansen's two-run homer off Peralta. So we went to the bottom of the ninth with Romano on the hill. Rizzo led off with a double, went to third on a Torres single, and scored on LeMahieu's single.
Sun 25 April: Toronto 5 New York 1 - This was a scoreless pitcher's battle between Gausman and Schmidt until the Jays struck suddenly in the sixth, with a two-run homer from Guerrero and a solo dinger from Varsho. Gausman allowed just three hgits and struck out 11 in seven shutout innings.
The Yankees came to town in mid-May, at a moment when the Blue Jays were feeling pretty good about themselves (they had just swept the mighty Atlanta Braves.) The Bombers put an end to that right quick...
Mon 15 May: New York 7 Toronto 4 - The Yankees jumped on Alek Manoah for three runs right away - Judge homer, Torres single, Calhoun homer - and added two more in the fourth inning on a couple of hits and three walks. The Jays did all their scoring in the bottom of the eighth, achieving little beyond creating a Save Opportunity for Michael King.
Tue 16 May: New York 6 Toronto 3 - A weird, memorable affair. The Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead against Gausman, but starter Domingo German was ejected after three perfect innings and the Jays tied it up in the fifth on Kiermaier's homer and successive hits from Springer, Bichette, and Guerrero. The game was tied at 3-3 when Judge came to bat in the eighth against Jay Jackson with Hicks on base. And Judge seemed to be looking somewhere off to his right for... inspiration, perhaps?
Wed 17 May: New York 0 Toronto 3 - Gerrit Cole was sharp and Chris Bassitt was even sharper. Neither team could score until we got to extra innings. With the Zombie Runner in place, Merrifield reached on an error and Danny Jansen sent everyone home happy with a three-run walkoff.
Thu 18 May: New York 4 Toronto 2 - Torres led off with a single, Judge followed with a homer and the Yankees had a lead they would hold all evening. Twice the Jays closed to within a run, but no closer.
Matchups!
Tue 19 Sep - Kikuchi (9-6, 3.81) vs Schmidt (9-8, 4.56)
Wed 20 Sep - Gausman (11-9, 3.40) vs King (4-6, 2.77)
Thu 21 Sep - Berrios (11-10, 3.49) vs Cole (13-4, 2.81)