TORONTO – The Yankees needed what Ben Rice gave them in the ninth inning Tuesday night in the worst way.
Staring at a five-game deficit in the AL East in the face after coughing up a three-run lead, Rice hit a tiebreaking home run off Blue Jays ace closer Jeff Hoffman with one out in the top of the ninth inning to lift the Yankees to a white-knuckler of a 5-4 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 42,326 at Rogers Centre.
The Yankees (56-45) closed within three games of the East-leading Blue Jays (59-42), who saw their 11-game home winning streak come to an end.
The Yankees snapped a nine-game road losing streak vs AL East opponents.
Hoffman, 24-for-28 in save chances this season but on with the score tied 4-4, retired Giancarlo Stanton on a pop up to start the ninth before Rice, a potential trade chip for the upcoming July 31 trade deadline, hammered a first-pitch, 97-mph fastball to right-center for his 15th homer.
Devin Williams, following Luke Weaver to the mound after 1 2/3 scoreless innings, allowed a leadoff single to Vlad Guerrero Jr., who has routinely hit the Yankees since his big-league debut in 2019. Williams struck out Bo Bichette on a changeup and Addison Barger, 12-for-24 to that point of the season against the Yankees, just missed winning it, flying out deep to a running Bellinger on the track in left-center. Williams struck out Alejandro Kirk swinging at a changeup to end it, earning him his 15th save in 16 chances.
The wild game included yet another error by under-fire shortstop Anthony Volpe, who batted ninth for the first time this season and committed his team-high 13th error in the sixth inning as Toronto tied it at 4-4.
Cam Schlittler, the 24-year-old rookie righthander who won his big-league debut July 9 against the Mariners, matched up against 40-year-old Max Scherzer and outpitched the future Hall of Famer.
Schlittler allowed two runs, seven hits and three walks over five innings. Scherzer allowed four runs, five hits and a walk over five innings, striking out four. Cody Bellinger, who came in 1-for-16 with 10 strikeouts in his career against Scherzer, went 3-for-3 against hit on this night, including his 18th homer of the season and two doubles (he finished 3-for-4).
Five pitches into the top of the first the Yankees had runners at second and third as Trent Grisham led off with a single and Bellinger doubled. Aaron Judge struck out on a full-count 90-mph cutter. Jazz Chisholm Jr. came next and torpedoed a full-count, 95-mph down-the-middle fastball 407 feet to right-center, his 18th homer making it 3-0.
The Blue Jays got one back in the bottom half on Barger’s RBI single that made it 3-1.
Toronto loaded the bases with two outs in the second, but Schlittler, with some help from Bellinger in left, turned them away, getting Guerrero to pop out.
After Schlittler stranded his sixth runner of the night in the fourth – Wagner singled with two outs – Bellinger bumped the lead back to three in the fifth. Reaching for a 2-and-2 cutter that came in low, Bellinger swatted it 405 feet to right-center for a 4-1 lead.
Springer led off the bottom half with a single to left and Guerrero dumped a single to center. Bichette sent a ground shot back up the middle where Volpe, ranging behind the second base bag, made a back-handed stop before making an accurate toss to a covering Chisholm, who caught it barehanded and fired to first to complete a pretty 6-4-3 double play. Barger’s RBI single made it 4-2.
Volpe, who committed a critical error in Monday night’s loss, committed his team-high 13th error in the sixth with Hill on the mound, leading to two unearned runs. Pinch hitter Myles Straw led off with a grounder and Volpe threw low to Rice, getting the start at first, who failed to scoop it out of the dirt. After Ernie Clement flied to center, pinch hitter Davis Schneider yanked a 1-and-1, 88-mph fastball down the leftfield line for an RBI double that made it 4-3. Lukes popped to short and Loaisiga, who brought a 5.11 ERA in 23 appearances into the night, came on to face Springer. The DH lined a first-pitch, 98-mph sinker to right for a single and Schneider just beat Judge’s throw from right, tying it at 4-4.
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.