The Yankees took the rubber game in Toronto today behind the strong pitching of Jordan Montgomery and three doubles from Gleyber Torres. Judge is still out.
{Dateline: Toronto, Canada May 3, 2020, 16:50 EST}
The New York Yankees continued their assault on the American League East with a 6-1 victory over the surprisingly competitive Toronto Blue Jays.
The victory marked the fourth consecutive game in which opponents scored two runs or less off Yankees pitching.
Gerrit Cole set the tone three days when he blanked the hapless Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium.
Jordan Montgomery turned in seven innings while walking none and scattering six hits on just 91 pitches. His only miss came on a slider that caught the sweet spot on the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for a solo home run (Guerrero’s league-leading 15th)
Three doubles, all into the opposite field gap, by Gleyber Torres drove in three, and Brett Gardner hit his second home run of the year, a two-run shot in the sixth inning. Torres is not batting a league-leading .377 – and he’s making it look easy.
Yankees Injury Report: Year Three – Chapter Seventeen
In a pre-game meeting with reporters, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was unable to predict when Aaron Judge will be cleared by doctors to resume regular baseball activities. Judge, who has yet to appear in a game this year, continues his mysterious series of undetected injuries.
The Yankees are also waiting for the other shoe to drop on Aaron Hicks, who, according to Boone and team doctors, should have ready a week ago.
There is no definitive word from the team or Hicks shedding any light on the holdup.
Meanwhile, Giancarlo Stanton is playing as often as Boone inserts him in the lineup.
There are signs of rust in not recognizing a pitch off the hand of the pitcher (13 called strike-threes), but his .280 batting average with seven home runs is a good sign.
Yankees On A Deja-Vu Pace
The Yankees 2020 season is beginning to resemble 2019 in weird ways. The Tampa Bay Rays are doing what they always do – which is to win and stay close. And the other end of the spectrum falls in line too with the Orioles still waiting to get in the double-digit win column.
The Yankees rivalry with the Red Sox is on hold while Boston figures out a way to survive without Mookie Betts, David Price, and Chris Sale. You can see for yourself when the Sox visit Yankee Stadium this weekend.
The main concern for the Yankees is the Toronto Blue Jays.
The addition of former Dodger Hyun-jin Ryu is a big plus, and the excitement swirling around the sons of former major league greats, two of whom have fathers in the Hall Of Fame is drawing record crowds to Rogers Centre.
In addition to Guerrero, Cavan Biggio and Dante Bichette are looking more and more like the real thing. While the Baby Blue Jays equal the long-lost Baby Bombers in terms of that ugly word potential, the Yankees need to be “up” whenever they play them.
The Blue Jays were surely up this past weekend. They failed, but youth never dies.
In short, the American League East belongs to the New York Yankees. So what?
Are The Yankees Already Counting The Days?
Put the Yankees in the National League East with the Nationals, Braves, Mets, and Phillies, and then we have a different story and a genuine pennant race.
Though it’s only May and the injury-prone Yankees can lose half their team in the next two weeks, it will take a modern-day virus epidemic to stop the Yankees from waltzing to a third consecutive 100+ win season.
Fast-forward to October if we could – you betcha. But baseball is a grind it out sport. The last man standing always wins – unless, of course, they cheat.
For The Yankees Then, Pretend It’s Golf
With the pseudo image of the Yankees team a mirage then, let’s shift focus to the performance of individual players. I know that’s heresy in a team sport, just pretend it’s golf.
Gio Urshela is holding his own against a considerable challenge from Miguel Andujar. But the reality is setting in that Andujar will never be a major league first baseman, meaning one of the two is undoubtedly on the trade block come July.
DJ LeMahieu has picked up right where he left off spraying base hits with an occasional power stroke to all parts of the field – in what could be (say it ain’t so) his walk year with the Yankees.
Meanwhile, the tandem of Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka, and a fully healed James Paxton continue to challenge Aaron Boone to find a way to mix in his bullpen in the face of ongoing six-inning plus starts.
And finally, there’s the full blossoming of Gleyber Torres to watch and behold as the still only 23-year-old makes his way through the big leagues, continuing to improve every season while putting a stamp on a career that reaches to Yankee’s immortality.
Looking Ahead
The Yankees have Pittsburgh and the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium before things get interesting again.
A ten-game road trip lies ahead with series against Tampa Bay, Houston, and Milwaukee – all potential opponents of the Yankees at some point in the Postseason.
The Yankees Can Only Stand By
We’ll know more, though, when the Center For Disease Control (CDC) issues its weekly report and recommendations, scheduled for 5 pm EST on CNN that will take effect and could again interrupt the season.
Meanwhile, the Yankee’s chartered plane remains on the tarmac at Toronto Pearson Airport, awaiting further directions as to how to proceed.
This is the third interruption to the 2020 baseball season since the shutdown of Spring Training by MLB in March.
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
