Blue Jays Hitters Set Multiple Records in Emphatic Win Over Yankees
This series has been circled on the calendar for months.
Following a tone-setting three-game sweep over the Oakland Athletics where "everything clicked" for the Blue Jays, Toronto squared off against the Yankees in The Bronx on Monday.
It's been a while since Toronto met New York for an AL East showdown. It's been so long, in fact, that the last time these two teams met—June 17 at Sahlen Field in Buffalo—TJ Zeuch started for the Jays and a mishmash of names like Joel Payamps, Anthony Castro and Tyler Chatwood followed out of the bullpen.
The Blue Jays, now sporting a greatly improved roster, snapped out of an offensive slump this past weekend. The hot streak comes at an excellent time, too, as Toronto needs to replicate that fiery effort if they want a whiff of catching a surging Yankees team that's won 32 of 47 games in the second half.
The first inning of Monday's 8-0 win, however, confirmed that the Blue Jays are up to the task. After Marcus Semien—one of the weekend's various heroes—drove a slider into the stands for his 36th homer of the season, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stepped up and ripped his 40th home run of the year to make it back-to-back Blue Jays' jacks.
#PLAKATA NUMBER 40 💥 pic.twitter.com/mvGY1VCBlE
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 6, 2021
As the ball dropped neatly into the second row of the short porch in right field, the 22-year-old became the youngest player in franchise history to reach the milestone, and only the 10th Blue Jay all-time to join the 40-homer club.
"That's just not easy to do at that age," manager Charlie Montoyo said. "But more impressive to me are the singles that he's getting to the opposite field because he's not looking for homeruns and that's why he has a good hitting streak.
"This guy's gonna be one of the best players in baseball—actually he already is. It's been fun to watch somebody that young be that good at the plate."
Guerrero Jr.'s record-setting blast extended his hit-streak to 14 games, but the offense went silent after the explosive first frame. Yankees starter Jameson Taillon shrugged off the early homers and held Toronto without a hit for five consecutive innings.
The Blue Jays offense took a few innings off, eventually adding one run in the seventh, but it exploded once more in ninth.
A GRAND way to make #BlueJays history 💣 pic.twitter.com/KFFHsECuC6
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 6, 2021
The Yankees essentially waved the white flag by trotting out reliever Brooks Kriske and his 10.80 ERA during a late-inning jam and Toronto made them pay. After Teoscar Hernández notched his 25th homer of the year, Semien chipped in with a wall-scraping grand-slam a few batters later for his second blast of the game. His 37th longball of the year set a franchise record for most single-season home runs by a Blue Jays middle infielder.
"Everybody just has a good feel in their mechanics right now," Semien said. "For me at least, when my mechanics and timing are sound, I think I see the ball better. I'm more confident, and I'm seeing that with everybody in the cage when they work."
On the hill, starting pitcher Hyun Jin Ryu one-upped Taillon the whole way. After finding success with a fastball-heavy approach in his last start, the left-hander pounded Yankees hitters with heaters up-and-in.
The fastball set up his patented frustrating off-speeds; when Gio Urshela reached on a leadoff single to start the sixth, Ryu pulled the string on a perfect changeup to get DJ LeMahieu to roll into an easy double play.
"I felt really good with all my pitches today," Ryu said through a translator. "And I feel like it's one of those games that I felt the best.
"I said in my last interview that every game means a lot for us right now and puts us into a better position, so it's something that we've got to focus on. I wasn't worried about pitch counts, I just wanted to focus on the game."
He's been prone to blow-up innings all season, yet Ryu tossed a shutout gem through six innings, allowing only three hits and striking out six. He was removed from the game a little early due to some "tightness" in his elbow, but doesn't expect the issue to bother him going forward.
Monday's game eventually snowballed into the offensive smackdown Blue Jays fans have been used to seeing of late, but it was initially won as a game of pitching and defense.
Regardless of how it came together, the victory was not only a massive tone-setter for the remaining three games of this series, but also provided a morale boost to this Jays club that now finds itself riding a five-game winning streak.
"It's a sweep that we had at home, and we come into Yankee Stadium, first game, 8-0. I think that'll give you some confidence," Semien said.
Ethan Diamandas is a contributing writer who covers the Toronto Blue Jays for Sports Illustrated. He also writes for Yahoo Sports Canada and MLB.com. Follow Ethan on Twitter @EthanDiamandas