The Blue Jays have been searching for power all season. They found some Friday night, but unfortunately so did the Yankees. and homered for the Jays while Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres went deep for the Yankees.
The difference was the number of men on base when the big hits happened: zero for the Jays, five for the Yankees. Yusei Kikuchi served up a three-run shot to Soto while reliever Nate Pearson surrendered a two-run blast to Torres. The homers came as part of a six-run sixth inning that was later outdone by a seven-run ninth in a 16-5 Yankees win.
Kikuchi had been cruising up until the sixth. The veteran left-hander retired the first 10 batters he faced, six via strikeout. He also wasn’t phased when a botched squeeze play in the fourth resulted in a run that never should have scored.
The Jays entered the sixth with a 3-1 advantage when Kikuchi allowed the first two batters to reach base. Soto, a reported off-season target of the Jays, then stepped to the plate and ripped a no-doubter to right for his 20th homer of the season. That was the end of the line for Kikuchi, who threw just 84 pitches, but it wasn’t the end for the Yankees’ offence.
Pearson allowed an RBI double off the bat of J.D. Davis before Torres hit a two-run shot for his eighth of the season.
The Jays cut the deficit to two via home runs from Guerrero and Kiner-Falefa before the Yankees tacked on nine runs late to put the game out of reach in embarrassing fashion. Former Jays ace did not get a decisio.
