New York Yankees get to Blue Jays starter Alek Manoah as winning streak continues


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There are no must-win baseball games in June, right?

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Don’t bother trying that soft sell approach to the New York Yankees, who continued their assault on baseball history on a breezy Saturday afternoon at the Rogers Center.

The Yanks got just enough of Toronto ace Alek Manoah to cruise to a 4-0 win, their ninth in a row, continuing a stretch of dominance rarely seen in the sport.

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Not only did the power-packed visitors improve to 49-16 on the season, they’ve now opened up a ridiculous 12-game lead in the American League East. In doing so, they’re also threatening to suck the life of a divisional race before Canada Day.

That the Jays are the closest pursuers is a hollow consolation, especially given where we are in the calendar. Manager Charlie Montoyo’s team (37-28) has won four more games than they had at this point last season, when they were just 8.5 games out of first in the division.

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Such is the dominance of the Yankees right now as they beat Manoah for the first time in six career meetings.

If there was one near sure thing for the Jays since Manoah was promoted to the team last June, it was that they’d get the job done when the big man is on the mound. His competitive fire from him was there on Saturday, but the Yankees were able to touch him up for a season-high four runs on six hits over his 5.1 innings of work.

That output snapped a streak of 17 starts in which Manoah allowed no more than three runs.

“I just think that if we continue to compete each and every day we’ll be exactly where we need to be at the end,” Manoah said after a frustrating outing in which the Yankees scored a decisive three runs in the fourth, an inning in which manager Charlie Montoyo got tossed for arguing a hit by pitch call to protect his starter.

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“We’re right where we need to be… Continue to play hard. Continue to compete. And just continue to battle down thee stretch.”

That mindset won’t hurt the Jays, of course, but as flaws begin to become more pronounced, it is clear there is work to be done.

Meanwhile, the march towards history for the Yankees is real, especially given their refusal to show any weaknesses of their own.

Their record is the second best after 65 games in franchise history and the fourth-best by any major league team since 1901. They have won 49 of their first 65 games for the fourth time in team history. The previous three – 1928, 1939 and 1958 – resulted in World Series titles.

As they continue to roll over competition across baseball, the Yanks have an MLB-best run differential of 144, a mere 121 better than the Jays.

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As much as the Jays leaned towards playing down the significance of this weekend series, it now feels a little like a waving of the white flag.

It certainly shaped up as a potentially special weekend by the Toronto waterfront with sellout crowds, the unofficial start of summer and a three-game series between a pair of teams that began the season with lofty expectations.

Now what remains is the prospect of struggling lefty Yusei Kikuchi pitching well enough in Sunday’s finale to avoid a three-game series sweep at the bats of the Bronx Bombers.

On Saturday, a crowd of 45,055 watched and waited (and waited) for a Jays run to cross the plate. Instead, there was nothing as the Jays dropped their third in a row, a miserable stretch in which they’ve been outscored 26-5.

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While we’re chronicling the gloom, the Jays are now 3-8 vs. the Yankees this season and a worrisome 11-14 against division opponents. By contrast, the Yanks are 24-10 against AL East foes.

The Jays won’t get bogged down by a series loss in late June. But in fairness, they’ve seen another level from their weekend visitors and are well aware of the challenge.

“When we play a team like the Yankees who are playing really well, the only thing we can do is go out there and compete inning by inning,” Jays infielder Santiago Espinal said. “They’re good. I feel we’re better but we’re going to have to take it day-by-day and turn it around.”

RYU THE DAY

While not a surprise, it appears that Hyun-Jin Ryu has pitched his last game for the Jays.

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The team announced on Saturday that the South Korean starter had successfully undergone Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament. With typical recovery time a minimum of 12 months – and likely longer – the lefty is unlikely to pitch again for the Jays.

After a solid first season with the Jays in 2020, Ryu has been inconsistent at best. The team signed him to a four-year, $80-million US deal in 2019.

AROUND THE BASES

Montoyo was tossed for the fourth time this season after arguing whether Yankees catcher Jose Trevino had swung (he did) on the called hit-by-pitch by Manoah. “No one is messing with my Manoah,” Montoyo said. “I know when I go out there I’m going to get thrown out but better than Manoah.” … Trevor Richards has been struggling on the mound — witness the mammoth grand slam he allowed to the Yanks Anthony Rizzo on Friday — and now there is a possible explanation for the struggles of Jays reliever. Just prior to Saturday’s game, the right-hander was placed on the 15-game injured list with what the team is calling a neck strain … After missing his first game of the season with a bruised foot, shortstop Bo Bichette was back in the lineup .

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