Defensive blunder dooms Yankees in 3-1 loss to Blue Jays

The Yankees had a late lead with Gerrit Cole dealing, but a defensive blunder allowed a two-run inning, as New York fell to the Blue Jays, 3-1, on Friday night in Toronto.

Up 1-0 in the sixth, the Jays had two runners on and one out. George Springer hit a groundball to Ryan McMahon. McMahon stepped on third for one out, but the throw to Luis Garcia Jr. at first took his glove off as he tried to scoop. Garcia tried to get Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at third base, but he threw it into left field, not noticing that no one was covering. Guerrero and George Lombard Jr. collided at third, as the ball went into the outfield, but Vlad was able to score. Alejandro Kirk followed with an RBI double to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead. McMahon and Garcia were given errors on the play.

It was enough for the Blue Jays as the Yankees' offense. New York left four runners on base and went 0-for-3 with RISP.

-Cole pitched on a tightrope early, as Toronto had runners on second and third with one out in the second inning. Cole struck out Kazuma Okamoto and got Jesus Sanchez to ground out to end the threat. 

After that defensive misplay pushed two runs across, Cole finished the inning, but that two-spot put a damper on the right-hander's night. He allowed two runs on five hits and two walks through his six innings, while striking out five. 

-On the offensive side, the struggles continued. Lombard made a baserunning blunder, straying too far off second on a Trent Grisham single in the third, and the team wasted a leadoff double from Spencer Jones in the fourth. Jones was on third with one out before Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Heliot Ramos flew out to end the inning.

Grisham lined a home run (359 ft, 100.3 mph) over the right field wall for his 16th of the season. The blast put the Yankees up 1-0 in the sixth.

-The Yankees bullpen kept the Blue Jays off the board until the eighth. Bradley Hanner, making his major league debut, struck out the first two batters on the night, but Kirk launched his fifth home run of the season to give Toronto an insurance run.

-Shane Bieber held the Yankees at bay. Aside from allowing the Grisham homer, the former AL Cy Young winner allowed just four hits and one walk across six innings while striking out five.

-The Yankees had just five hits. Grisham had two with Jones, Chisholm and McMahon reaching base via the hit.  

The Blue Jays backstop drove in two of the team's three runs.

Trent Grisham homers to give the Yankees the lead! pic.twitter.com/qjbbZPJdwG

The Yankees and Blue Jays play the second game of their series on Saturday. First pitch is set for 3:07 p.m.

Cam Schlittler (10-6, 2.21 ERA) will take the mound. Toronto has yet to announce a starter.