About Yesterday

Yankees 3 Blue Jays 1

Ed Botti

September 6, 2025

Photo Bill Kostroun

 Five games into this critical 12 game stretch of games and the Yankees stand at 3-2.

When this stretch started, I wanted to see them to go 8-4. They are on track for that with the rubber game with Toronto set for today.

On this Saturday afternoon, the home team Yankees sent Luis Gil to the mound in front of 45,123 fans hoping for a better game than the one witness Friday night.

Despite the 1:46 rain delay in the mid-6^th inning, the Yanks delivered on this day, and sent everyone home with a smile!

They did so by playing a very clean and fundamentally sound ball game. No one went deep, but they did what they had to do to get the win.

The only blemish in the game was a clumsy double play ball transfer by Chisholm that would have ended the 4^th inning, but ended up with Toronto scoring their only run of the game.

In Jazz’ defense, the shuttle from Volpe came in on a slightly odd angle. But, he still needs to make that play.

As we see over and over again in pro sports, especially Baseball, the team that makes the least amount of mistakes usually takes home the W.

Saturday was no different.

Vlad Guerrero provided the opportunity by mishandling a groundball off the bat of Cody Bellinger. The Yanks moved the runners up, and they cashed it in on their way to a 2 run 2^nd inning on a Jasson Domínguez clutch RBI single and Wells’ first sac fly of the day.

Domínguez was making his first start since Aug. 30 on Saturday. Good move by Boone who obviously knew that Jasson was 6-for-9 with a home run and two RBI against the Chris Bassitt.

Yankee starter Luis Gil, despite his usual command issues, managed to get out of any trouble in big fashion and gave his team 6 innings.

Cody Bellinger once again showed how great of a player he is by making a huge play to end the 6^th inning, and head off into the rain delay with a 2-1 lead.

Bellinger playing right field today, his 4th position played this season, plays all of them to perfection. He threw a dart to the plate, Wells caught it and made a great, tough tag on Bo Bichette for the out.

Quick Stats:

Luis Gil threw only 90 pitches, of which only 56 crossed the plate for strikes. Gil needs to keep working on his command issues, but as we know with most pitchers coming back from injury, command is always the last piece of the arsenal to return.

Fernando Cruz is quickly becoming a fan favorite as he wears his heart on his sleeve and shows how much he cares each and every time he takes the ball. Today was no different as he cleaned up for Weaver to get out of the 7^th and got 2 more outs in the 8^th before being lifted for some reason to give Bednar a shot at a 4 out save.

Offensively, the Yanks only had 5 hits on this day, but made them count by playing great defense, and executing fundamentals very well.

That is what good teams do, when they don’t get big time run production.

That is how you win playoff games.

Besides the play at the plate, Volpe went deep down the left field line to make a difficult catch look easy. Of course, McMahon chipped in with a few great plays at the hot corner, showing all of us why he was acquired.

Weaver, Cruz and Bednar threw 4 scoreless innings to lock up the win, and shave a game off Toronto’s division lead, which now stands at 3 games

Big Story:

Photo Bill Kostroun

Austin Wells had two of the games bigger at bats and did the right thing on both occasions.

At a point in the season where every run is important, Wells made sure that he put the ball in play, and had 2 RBI sacrifice fly balls.

Austin now leads the league with 11.

Not exactly a sexy stat to lead the league in, but every run counts, and on this day he played a huge role in getting the win.

Player(s) of the Game

My player of the game belt today will be shared by the tag team of Bellinger and Wells. Bellinger walked 3 times and scored a critical run, while Wells came through with 2 clutch RBI.

As a unit, they ended a potential Toronto rally by making a great throw and tag at the plate.

Notable Performances:

David Bednar came out of the bullpen and struck out 3 of the 4 batters he faced, with his 3 pitch repertoire.

Better to Forget:

The Yankees had a run taken away in the fifth when the Blue Jays challenged an indiscernible tag play at first base after a bad throw from Bichette pulled Guerrero off the base.

It initially appeared that Vlad missed the sweep tag on Bellinger. Toronto challenged the call and the replay showed Vlad just clipped one of Bellinger’s cleats on his left foot just before he landed his right foot on the bag.

My Take:

Despite Friday night’s choke job and disappointing game, I am very encouraged by the approach they have been taking in the first 4 of 5 games of this 12 game stretch.

They are running the bases well and playing a clean brand of team baseball.

One could argue that had they been fortunate enough to have had a competent umpire behind the plate on Wednesday, they just might be 4-1.

Regardless of who the corner outfielders are they know that their centerfielder will get to and make all the plays an elite centerfield should make.

Grisham is overlooked by some. My guess is because he makes it looks so easy. And let’s face it, how many other elite centerfielders also have 30 home runs?  Not many!

It is discouraging that Judge played the field Friday, but was back at DH on Saturday. As an old friend of mine used to say, “You either is, or you isn’t”.

This afternoon they have a chance to make a real statement to the Jays, and take this series and trim the lead to 2 games with 20 to play.

Max (Fried) vs Max (Scherzer) first pitch is at 1:35 on YES. Max Fried will be trying to tie teammate Carlos Rodon with the league leading 16 wins.

This is now the biggest game of the Year! This is now the time to play your best game of the year. Lock in, and get it done!

RIP Davey Johnson, a great player and manager. I met Davey one night just after the Mets had won the 1986 World Series, and he was as nice of a guy as you could wish for.