TORONTO – Aaron Boone simply couldn’t watch his dumpster fire defense try to field the baseball any longer.
OK, that isn’t why Boone was ejected in the seventh inning in Wednesday night’s embarrassing 8-4 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. No, that was a result of the Yankees manager objecting to the strike zone of plate umpire Manny Gonzalez, finally having had his fill after what appeared to be a high strike called against catcher J.C. Escarra (pitching coach Matt Blake was ejected moments before Boone’s fourth ejection of the season).
But focusing on the strike zone would be taking the easy way out. The Yankees (56-46), for whom playing the game fundamentally well has been a steep hill to climb for years now, committed four errors in paving the way to a loss that saw them fall four games behind the AL-East leading Blue Jays (60-42). Toronto, which took two of three in this series, improved to 7-3 against the Yankees this season.
It was a crazy, back-and-forth game that saw the Blue Jays scored two runs each in innings 4-7 in taking an 8-4 lead.
After Aaron Judge’s 37th home run of the season tied it 4-4 in the top of the sixth inning, Cody Bellinger, typically excellent in the field, lost Ernie Clement’s fly ball with one out in the bottom half in the lights, the play going for a triple. Myles Straw’s RBI double made it 5-4 and Max Fried was replaced by Jonathan Loaisiga. After retiring pinch hitter Nathan Lukes, pinch hitter Will Wagner hit a routine grounder to first where Rice kicked it for an error and Straw came in to make it 6-4.
As the Yankees were going down in order in the top of the seventh, first Blake and then Boone were shown the door by Gonzalez.
Vlad Guerrero Jr. led off the bottom half against Scott Effross with a sharp single to left that Jasson Dominguez misplayed for an error and Bo Bichette followed with rocket to left, his 13th homer making it 8-4.
Fried, making his first start since coming out of his July 12 start against the Cubs with a blister on his left index finger, allowed six runs (four earned), six hits and three walks over 5 1/3 innings. He threw 102 pitches.
Fried, a three-time Gold Glove winner, made one of the Yankees’ errors, which led to the Blue Jays scoring twice in the fifth.
Davis Scheider walked with one out and, with George Springer up, stole second (the Blue Jays won their second challenge of the game, the initial out call overturned). Springer walked and a wild pitch advanced the runners. Guerrero chopped one to the right of the mound where Fried fielded the ball and hurried his throw trying for Scheider. The low throw skittered away from Escarra, which allowed Springer to score for a 4-2 Toronto lead.
Guerrero booted Trent Grisham’s grounder to start the sixth for a two-base error and, after Bellinger flied to right, Judge roped a 0-and-1, 92-mph sinker to center, the homer tying it at 4-4. The blast gave Judge 352 career homers, sending him past Alex Rodriguez for sixth on the franchise list.
The Yankees actually made two standout defensive plays in the early going – Grisham chasing down in the gap in left-center a drive there by Schneider to start the bottom of the first and Jazz Chisholm Jr. stealing a hit from Straw on a ground smash up the middle, fielding the ball behind the second base bag and making a jump throw to first for the second out of the third.
Dominguez’s ninth homer of the season, which came in the second, gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead. After the Blue Jays took a 2-1 lead, Anthony Volpe’s 13th homer of the season, in the fifth, tied it at 2-2.
Blue Jays righthander Chris Bassitt improved to 11-4, allowing four runs (three earned) and three hits over 7 1/3 innings in which he struck out eight.
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.