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Yankees takeaways from Tuesday's 6-3 win over Blue Jays, including another Aaron Judge home run

phillip martinez
·5 min read
4
May 16, 2023; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; New York Yankees designated hitter Aaron Judge (99) watches his ball go over the center field wall for a two run home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the eighth inning at Rogers Centre.

Despite Domingo German getting ejected and the Yankees losing a bullpen arm to injury, Aaron Judge's home run lifted New York to a 6-3 win over the Blue Jays on Tuesday night.

Takeaways

-The big story out of Monday’s game was the Judge “controversy” and all eyes were on him and if there were any responses. In his first at-bat, Judge was showered with boos by the Toronto crowd -- a common theme for the evening -- before grounding out on the first pitch he saw. In his second at-bat, Judge struck out swinging on a 3-2 splitter from Kevin Gausman.

In his third at-bat, Judge struck out looking on a fastball that caught the corner with a man on third. In his fourth at-bat, Judge cleared the restaurant in dead center for a 448-foot home run and give the Yankees a 5-3 lead in the eighth inning. That was Judge's 31st home run of his career against Toronto, tying Jorge Posada for most by a Yankee against the Blue Jays. He would strike out in his final at-bat to end his night 1-for-5 with three strikeouts.

-Following Judge’s second at-bat, the Blue Jays dugout started yelling at third-base coach Luis Rojas that he needs to stay in the coaching box. This led to an on-the-field delay where the umpires started talking to Rojas and Aaron Boone came out to see what was going on.

In the fourth inning, Boone would tell the umpires to make sure the Blue Jays’ third-base coach was in the box as he was clearly out of it.

-The Yankees offense would get the scoring going in the third inning after an Isiah Kiner-Falefa leadoff walk and a Jose Trevino long single -- Daulton Varsho played the potential double perfectly off the left-field wall. Gleyber Torres drove in IKF with a single on a 3-2 fastball to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Torres has now reached base in 12 straight games. After a Judge strikeout, and a passed ball that moved the runners up. Harrison Bader grounded out to score Trevino and put the Yankees up 2-0. Torres would be thrown out trying to advance to third on the throw home.

-German was perfect in his start to this game, getting the first nine Blue Jays batters out with relative ease. Coming out for the fourth inning, German had a substance check and was deemed to have something foreign on his hands. He was promptly ejected.

As baseball fans may remember, the Mets’ Max Scherzer had a similar situation happen to him and was suspended for 10 games. The same fate is likely coming to German and a Yankees rotation that has been battered with injuries over the first month-and-a-half of the season. German’s final line: 3 IP (37 pitches/26 strikes), zero hits, zero runs, zero walks and two strikeouts.

-With German out of the game, the bullpen had to do some heavy lifting. Ian Hamilton relieved German and after a shaky start, allowing a single and a walk, he got the next two batters out. However, after walking the bases loaded, the trainers came out and the Yankees pulled their rookie reliever. He left with right groin tightness, per the Yankees. Ron Marinaccio got Whit Merrifield to line out to center to end the threat.

Marinaccio, after getting the first two outs, gave up a solo shot to Kevin Kiermaier. He then allowed a single to George Springer followed by a double to Bo Bichette. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a single to tie the game at 3-3. Ryan Weber would get the Yankees out of the inning and get New York to the eighth inning still tied. With the Yanks in the lead, Clay Holmes got through the eighth unscathed and Wandy Peralta closed the door in the ninth for his third save of the season.

Here's how the bullpen breakdown for Tuesday:

  • Hamilton: 0.2 IP (27 pitches), one hit, two walks, two strikeouts

  • Marinaccio: 1.0 IP (27 pitches), four hits, three runs, one strikeout

  • Weber: 2.1 IP (31 pitches), three hits

  • Holmes: 1 IP (16 pitches), one hit and one strikeout

  • Peralta: 1 IP (nine pitches), one walk

-Kiner-Falefa hit his first home run of the season, which put the Yankees up 3-0 in the fifth inning. IKF went 2-for-3 with a walk and three total runs. He also made a nifty double-play to end the game after Anthony Volpe made an error to extend the game.

Torres did not have the best game on either side of the ball. Not only did he get thrown out trying to advance earlier in the game, but he would be called out trying to stretch a single into a double, assisted by another great play by Varsho. In the eighth inning, Torres made a blunder on the field. With one out and a man on first, he elected to try and get Matt Chapman at second instead of taking the sure out at first. Both players were safe.

Torres did drive in IKF in the top of the ninth with a sac fly to extend the Yankee lead to 6-3. He went 2-for-4 with two RBI.

What’s Next

The Yankees continue their four-game series with the Blue Jays on Wednesday night starting at 7:07 p.m. in Toronto.

Gerrit Cole is scheduled to pitch against Chris Bassitt.