Two down, 19 to go.
Indeed, it’s very much a race for the American League East crown, not to mention for the league’s top playoff seed come October.
The Yankees, who as recently as Aug. 23 trailed the Blue Jays by 6 ½ games, have closed that gap to two games after taking two of three from Toronto with Sunday afternoon’s 4-3 victory in front of 43,266 at the Stadium.
The Yankees (80-63), getting a three-run homer in the first from Ben Rice, seven solid innings from Max Fried and a lockdown ninth by David Bednar, have won 16 of their last 22 games.
After an off-day Monday, the Yankees, who went 5-8 vs. the Blue Jays (82-61) this season and are the closest to the division lead since they were two games back on July 13, play host to the AL Central-leading Tigers for three games starting on Tuesday.
Max Fried departed with a 4-3 lead after allowing three runs and six hits over seven innings, giving way to the up-and-down Devin Williams. The righthander walked pinch hitter Addison Barger to start the eighth and, with Yankee tormentor Vlad Guerrero Jr. up, the runner stole second. Williams struck out Guerrero swinging at a nasty changeup and got Alejandro Kirk to ground to third but walked Ernie Clement. Williams, however, got Ty France to roll over on a changeup and bounce it to Ryan McMahon, who had another standout game in the field at third, for the third out. Bednar allowed a Nathan Lukes single with one out in the ninth, but Austin Wells threw him out trying to steal. Bednar got Myles Straw to ground to third for his 22nd save, and fifth since joining the Yankees at the trade deadline.
After Fried struck out one in a 1-2-3, eight-pitch top of the first, the Yankees got to Max Scherzer in the bottom half.
Aaron Judge, who had a busy day in rightfield in his second start there in three games, worked a one-out walk – his AL-leading 102nd free pass. Cody Bellinger improved to 25-for-75 (.333) over his last 20 games with a flared single to left. Rice fell behind 0-and-2 before engaging in a 10-pitch at-bat, finally driving a full-count, 95-mph fastball 380 feet to right for his 23rd homer and a 3-0 lead.
Fried gave one back in the second. He walked Kirk and Clement poked a double into the rightfield corner (Judge made a decent throw to second but a nifty slide by Clement allowed him to avoid Anthony Volpe’s tag). After France popped to third, former Yankee Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit an RBI single to left. That moved Clement to third and Lukes’ sacrifice fly to medium right made it 3-2. Judge did not make an attempt for the speedy Clement, instead tossing the ball in softly to Chisholm at second.
Fried was fortunate the Blue Jays didn’t take the lead in the third. George Springer led off with a double to right (Judge again took it easy on his throw to second, though he nearly got Springer, who stumbled near the bag). Davis Schneider hit a grounder to short and Volpe’s throw pulled Rice off the bag for the shortstop’s team-high 19th error. Guerrero followed and lasered a full-count sweeper 113.8 mph into the corner in left for an RBI double that tied it at 3-3 and put runners at second and third with none out. Fried did well to keep it there, getting Kirk, who throughout his career has hit Yankees pitching hard, to ground to first. Clement lined out to Volpe and France grounded to third for the third out.
The offense bounced right back in the bottom half. Judge started the rally with his second walk. With Bellinger up, Judge stole his 11th base of the season. Bellinger then hammered a 3-and-1, 94-mph fastball off the wall in right-center for an RBI double that made it 4-3.
The Yankees were fortunate to keep the one-run lead in the fourth. With one out, Lukes dribbled one in front of the plate. Wells called off Fried, fielded the ball, then fired well over the head of Rice, the error putting Lukes on second. But Fried struck out Straw looking at a 94-mph sinker and Judge made a diving catch on Springer’s sinking liner to end the inning.
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.