The theme espoused by anyone and everyone associated with the Yankees can be distilled to two simple words:
Lineup depth.
It came to the fore in their 11-2 win over the Blue Jays in Game 1 of Sunday afternoon’s doubleheader at Yankee Stadium. The 5-through-9 batters in the lineup — Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Jasson Dominguez and Oswaldo Cabrera — went a combined 8-for-18 with nine RBIs and six runs scored.
Toronto took a 1-0 in the top of the first. Leadoff hitter Bo Bichette reached on an infield single and advanced to second when Cabrera’s throw from third pulled first baseman Paul Goldschmidt off the bag. The Toronto shortstop moved to third on Max Fried’s wild pitch, and scored on Vladimir Guerrero’s RBI groundout.
Fried walked the next batter, Anthony Santander, before inducing George Springer to fly out to Aaron Judge for the second out. Alejandro Kirk singled and Andres Gimenez walked to load the bases before Ernie Clement flew out to Judge to end the inning.
Fried, who came into the game averaging 97 pitches in his first five starts of the season, threw 27 in the first inning.
The Yankees’ $218 million starter worked around trouble in the second inning with the help of a bizarre baserunning decision by the Blue Jays.
With one out, runners on first and second and Guerrero at bat, it appeared as if Toronto manager John Schneider called for a double steal. Myles Straw broke for third and Bichette headed to second. Straw got caught in a rundown, and was tagged by Cabrera for the second out. Guerrero flew out to Judge to end the inning.
After the early struggles, Fried (5-0) finished with one run allowed on six hits. He walked two and struck out three in six innings.
His counterpart, Kevin Gausman, was not nearly as strong.
The Yankees were able to get to Gausman in their six-run third inning, despite a baserunning snafu of their own when Cabrera inexplicably tagged up at second on Judge’s rocket off the right field wall with one out. The decision forced third base coach Luis Rojas to hold up Cabrera at third and Ben Rice at second, while Judge was limited to a single instead of an extra-base hit.
Still, it did not come back to haunt the Yankees because Gausman utterly fell apart.
Cody Bellinger’s sacrifice fly scored Cabrera to tie the game 1-1, and Gausman walked Goldschmidt to load the bases. Chisholm Jr. and Volpe followed with back-to-back bases loaded walks to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead before Wells drove Gausman’s 94 mph fastball to right-center that scored Goldschmidt, Chisholm, and Volpe.
In all, Gausman allowed six runs on five walks and three hits in 2 ⅔ innings and fell to 2-3.
With the damage done, Schneider pulled Gausman for reliever Paxton Schultz, and the Toronto starter was subsequently ejected from the game by home plate umpire Chris Conroy. Schultz walked Jasson Dominguez before ending the inning by inducing Cabrera to ground out to first.
The Yankees extended their lead to 9-1 in the fifth. After Chisholm struck out to start the inning, Volpe drilled Schultz’s 93 mph fastball over the rightfield wall for his fifth home run of the season. Three batters later, Cabrera drove in Wells and Dominguez with a two-RBI double.
Goldschmidt made it 10-1 in the sixth with an RBI double, and Bellinger scored on Chisholm’s fielder’s choice in the eighth.
