Yankees swept away by Blue Jays as catastrophic slide continues

After being swept from the Bronx by Toronto, the Yankees hold a half-game lead over the Blue Jays for the final wild card spot.

It certainly doesn’t feel like they’re going to hang on to it any longer.

Not after six straight losses – and 10 in their last twelve games – including Thursday’s 6-4 loss, which also marked the Blue Jays’ eighth straight win.

The Yankees made it interesting with two strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth, as Gary Sanchez and pinch hitter Luke Voit hit back-to-back homers, but Gio Urshela hit to end it.

Nestor Cortes Jr. has allowed just a pair of runs, both on solo homers, in six innings. Sal Romano’s recent call allowed a point in seventh and Wandy Peralta allowed an unearned point in eighth.

The Yankees, however, only got a two-run homerun from Anthony Rizzo in the sixth which briefly tied the game.

Lost by a pair of runs late in the eighth, the Yankees had a chance to rally, but failed again.

DJ LeMahieu hit Brett Gardner to start the inning against lefty Tim Mayza and served a right single. Aaron Judge chose the left to bring in Rizzo, who found himself in a force.

Giancarlo Stanton offered runners in the corners and an exit, but sank into a late-inning double play, which sent most of the remaining fans to the exits.

Andrew Heaney’s nightmarish tenure with the Yankees continued in the ninth, as the southpaw allowed two runs to put the game even further out of reach.

The night started badly for Cortes and the Yankees, as Bo Bichette started the game with a laser circuit on the left.

Marcus Semien followed with a single before Cortes beat Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the first out.

A brace from Teoscar Hernandez sent Semien to third, but Cortes responded by flying Alejandro Kirk to the right – too shallow to score Semien – then breathed Lourdes Gurriel Jr. as he watched.

The Yankees were able to place a runner in scoring late in the inning against right-hander Jose Berrios, when Judge reached the fielder’s pick and moved up to second on a pitch error by second baseman Semien. , but Rizzo and Stanton jumped in.

A pair of singles gave the Yankees runners the first and second with two strikeouts in the third, but Rizzo was taken out on the floor.

Stanton started in the bottom of the fourth with a sharp single to the left before inexplicably trying to stretch it to a double without running at full speed. Gurriel’s throw came early enough, but Stanton was initially declared safe after an awkward slide that nearly caused Gurriel to miss the tag. Toronto contested the play and it was canceled.

The Blue Jays added a run in the fifth as Randal Grichuk scored on the left to start the set.

Rizzo equalized him at the end of the set with an impressive two-point shot in the stands on the right.

It happened after Judge hit an infield single that bounced off third base. Rizzo followed with his fifth homerun as a Yankee to make it 2-2. Before the explosion, Rizzo had not scored since August 31.

Romano, recalled from Triple-A Scranton / Wilkes-Barre on Thursday to replace injured Jameson Taillon, replaced Cortes to start seventh. Romano gave Jansen a brace and hit batter Jake Lamb.

Bichette scored in the middle to mark Jansen, as the Blue Jays took the lead for good.

Romano left with the bases loaded and two for Peralta, who stoked Guererro to make it a one-point game.

Berrios was struck out with one and two strikeouts in the seventh, as Joakim Soria came in to face Urshela, who struck out on three shots.

Toronto filled the goals with a strikeout in the eighth against Peralta, who scored two goals and gave up a single and was not helped by a Tyler Wade error.

Peralta then pushed Jansen to force in an undeserved race. As his pitch count increased rapidly, Peralta got the next two hitters.