Yankees hang on late to win 9-8 over the Blue Jays

Despite his reputation as a Yankee killer, Kevin Gausman was anything but that in tonight’s game, as the Yankees ran him out of the game after he recorded just four outs. The Yankees hung six runs, five of them earned, on the right-hander, who had diminished velocity and stuff in this rare Saturday night contest. It started with a Juan Soto walk that led to an Aaron Judge two-run blast, and with Giancarlo Stanton smacking a ball to right field for solo blast, they were out early with the scoring.

The second inning would be a testament to their patience at the plate, grinding at-bats against Gausman as he had over 50 pitches thrown in the game before he got Gleyber Torres to hit a sacrifice fly for his final recorded out. That flyball just missed being a grand slam, but Gleyber Torres would still smack a double later in the game to join the hit parade. Clarke Schmidt would see his command go early in the game, walking three batters in the cold and windy weather, allowing the Blue Jays to cut the deficit to just four runs before he departed in the fifth.

It would seem like a two-run blast from Anthony Rizzo in the sixth would quell the Blue Jays for good, with Juan Soto adding an insurance run in the form of an RBI single an inning later. In Luke Weaver’s third inning of work however, the wheels seemed to just come off for him similarly to Clarke Schmidt, as he allowed three runs on three hits and a walk, including a solo blast off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Victor Gonzalez would stop the bleeding and fire 1.1 innings before Ian Hamilton would be called upon for the final innings.

He struggled to keep the bases clean, allowing a walk and two hits, which prompted Aaron Boone to go to Clay Holmes to close this thing out. With a groundball, single, and strikeout, Holmes finally put an end to a game that could have been disastrous for the Yankees. Instead of being left to think about a gut-wrenching loss, the Yankees walk away with a win, and they’ll have a chance to steal a series tomorrow with Luis Gil going up against Bowden Francis in an afternoon showdown.