About Yesterday: Yankees 8, Blue Jays 3

By Mike Whiteman August 4, 2024 On this day in 1983, after completing his between inning warmups in the outfield during a game against the Blue Jays, Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield tossed the practice ball to the ballboy...but instead hit (accidently he said) and killed a seagull! After the game, Winfield was arrested by Toronto police, and bailed out by Jays' General Manager Pat Gillick. Charges were dropped the next day. https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/august-4-1983-dave-winfields-errant-throw-accidentally-kills-seagull-in-toronto/ On this day in 2007, I watched Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th home run at Yankee Stadium.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200708040.shtml Quick Stats: The Yankees are 66-46 on the season, tied with Baltimore for first place in the American League East. They are on a 95-win pace. Carlos Rodon earned the win and is 12-7, 4.37 on the season. Aaron Judge's 41 home runs and 103 RBI lead all of MLB. He's third in batting average at .321. He's on pace for 59 homers and 149 RBI. Big Story: After the big wins against the Red Sox and Phillies, the Yankees should just mow over the last place Blue Jays, right? Well, Major League Baseball doesn't work that way, and the Yanks were outplayed by Toronto Friday night. It was important to come out yesterday and not let that loss start to snowball into a slump. The game didn't begin any better, as the Blue Jays took a first-inning lead on Vladimir Guerrero's solo home run. The Yanks came right back when Judge smacked a two-run home run. Rodon held the Jays scoreless in the second inning, and then Trent Grisham hit another two-run shot in the bottom of the frame. The Yankees had a 4-1 lead.

As Rodon maintained his effectiveness, Anthony Volpe ripped a two-run homer of his own in the fifth. He later followed up with an RBI single in the seventh. Catcher Austin Wells added another RBI single in the eighth. Rodon pitched into the sixth, and was pulled when he put runners on second and third. Jake Cousins allowed those runners to score, but the pen held the Blue Jays scoreless rest of the way. Toronto loaded the bases in the ninth off Mark Leiter, but Clay Holmes came on for an easy one-out save.

The Yankees had the bounceback win they needed, 8-3. Notable Performances: In 14 games since the All-Star break, Volpe is batting .372 with five home runs and 12 RBI....Judge has homered in the first inning 16 times this season....back in the lineup after his benching, Gleyber Torres had a single in four at bats....Wells is batting .356 in eleven starts from the cleanup spot in the batting order....In perhaps the ultimate show of respect, Toronto manager John Schneider intentionally walked Judge with nobody on and two outs in the second inning. When did that last happen? Better to Forget: Alex Verdugo was hitless in five plate appearances. Since his high point of .275 in early May, he is hitting .216. They Said It: "He's on everything right now. He is dangerous. He is productive" - YES announcer Joe Girardi describing the groove that Anthony Volpe is in right now. My Take: Obviously a good and needed win, with good starting pitching and contributions from all over the roster. In the game comments yesterday, our esteemed editor Paul made the comment "We are watching greatness", referring to Aaron Judge.

He is right. Judge is in the midst of his second near Triple Crown season in three years. He led the AL in home runs and RBI while finishing second in batting average during his epic 2022 season, and as we have reached August is nearly replicating the feat again. On Friday night he became just the fourth Yankee to hit 40+ home runs in three seasons - joining Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Mickey Mantle. He also has a real chance of joining the trio to be the only Yanks to reach WAR of ten or more in a season twice in his career. Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Judge. We should enjoy this time. Next Up: Win the series! Ace Gerrit Cole (3-2, 5.40) takes the mound against rookie Yariel Rodriguez (1-4, 4.31) at 1:35pm.