While Yankees Show Painfully Mediocre Results, Blue Jays Surge To Top Of AL East

There was a time when you would hear things like if you gave the Yankees an opening or an opportunity, they often took it and rolled towards beating an opponent no matter the quality of the team across the field.

These days it is not hard to think the Yankees are the ones giving their opponents those opportunities to get the win and eventually capitalize on any little mistake.

Of late, the team fitting the description of what the Yankees from the first five seasons of Joe Torre’s tenure and in other seasons achieved is the Toronto Blue Jays.

It is easy to think it since in a span of 24 days the Blue Jays massively seized on any kind of mistake ranging from mislocated pitches, errors and sub-par defense that did not go down as errors due to rules or other reasons.

While the Yankees’ 52 errors are 30 fewer than the MLB-worst Red Sox, seven were in the series, including four on Wednesday. In the previous visit to Toronto when the Yankees were swept in four straight right before visiting the Mets, they committed four, giving them 11 in the past seven encounters with the Blue Jays.

And to break it down a little further, the Yankees were charged with 24 errors in their first 55 games when they sped out to a 35-20 record and seven-game lead through May 28. Since then, they are 21-26 with 28 errors in that span and 17 in the other games not against the Blue Jays in which the Yankees are 21-19.

Which leads to the question of what the Yankees are? Are they the team who won 16 of 20 to surge into first place when the other divisional competition was lacking or are they the painfully mediocre group who is 11-18 against the AL East, including an unsightly 4-12 since May 28?

The answer is likely somewhere in between but highly closer to mediocre.

They are playing with a novice left fielder in Jasson Dominguez, who has had his moments but is still learning on the fly. When Paul Goldschmidt is not capably scooping various throws out of the dirt, they are playing with another novice at first base in Ben Rice, who has done several good things at the plate but remains a work in progress in the field.

At shortstop, they are in Year Three of Anthony Volpe, whose defense remains a lightning rod for fans and manager Aaron Boone based on his comments during his weekly spot on “Talkin Yanks”. Volpe can get to balls but is up to 13 errors, with eight of those coming since May 28.

His figure is three shy of last season and four shy of his rookie season. His pace gives him a chance to join Gleyber Torres, Chase Headley as the third Yankee with at least 20 errors since 2015.

And in the latest rough showing against the Blue Jays, Max Fried made one of the errors while also appearing to deal with a recurrence of his blister though on a different finger. Dominguez also made an error right before Bo Bichette hit a two-run homer, Rice made an error that allowed a run to score and Cody Bellinger lost a ball in the lights for a triple.

Capitalizing on those miscues kept the good times rolling for the Blue Jays, who are playing similar to some of their stretches in 2015 and 2016 and dominating the Yankees like they did in 2021. Back then when the Yankees tediously won 92 games, the Blue Jays won 11 of 19 meetings, including eight of 10 in New York highlighted by a four-game sweep when the Yankees somehow followed up winning 13 straight by losing seven straight a few weeks later.

This season, it is not only George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr, though they are doing plenty of the heavy lifting against the Yankees. Springer, who went 5-for-5 in New York on Aug. 18, 2022, is 15-for-36 in the season series while Guerrero is 11-for-38.

Addison Barger and Ernie Clement are amongst the others getting things done against the Yankees along with various pitchers such as Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt, giving the Blue Jays a clear pitching edge over the Yankees.

As for where this goes, the way the Yankees played in Toronto in their past seven trips there, a four-game deficit might feel like an eight-game bulge. The rest of the schedule is evenly split with the Yankees mostly being home every other week.

The Yankees get their first chances at moving beyond the disasters in Toronto by playing seven against the Phillies and Rays. It is certainly possible a big run could be in front of them or looming but the optics in Toronto did offer a basis for it.