If the Toronto Blue Jays are going to have success against the New York Yankees this season, it seems there is no place but home.
The Blue Jays took two of three from the visiting Yankees June 4-6 to take the three-game series.
They have a chance Sunday afternoon to win a second home series from the Yankees after a 5-4 victory Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays have won two in a row after dropping the opener of the four-game series.
Overall, the Yankees still lead the season series 7-5.
The Yankees will start right-hander Masahiro Tanaka (7-6, 4.93 ERA) Sunday against Blue Jays right-hander Trent Thornton (4-7, 5.55).
Tanaka has had success against the Blue Jays, going 12-5 with a 2.88 ERA in 19 career starts against them, with the Yankees going 14-5. He has allowed one or no runs in nine of his 19 starts against Toronto and has at least six strikeouts in 11 of the starts.
He is 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in two starts against the Blue Jays this season. He is 3-3 with a 3.70 ERA in eight career starts in Toronto.
Thornton will be making his 24th career start in the majors Sunday and his third against the Yankees, all this season. He is 0-0 with a 9.72 ERA in his two starts against them, covering 8 1/3 innings.
The Blue Jays were again without closer Ken Giles on Saturday and might be for a longer term because of a nerve inflammation in his elbow.
“His arm is not bouncing back,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said after the game Saturday. “We’ve been talking about it to see where we go from here.”
The next step could be on injured reserve, which Montoyo did not discount.
Giles has not pitched since Wednesday. He has not pitched on consecutive days since he was used for three days in a row July 2-4.
He has pitched six times for six innings since the All-Star break, allowing seven hits and with a 4.50 ERA, one win and two saves.
After the Blue Jays took the lead in the seventh inning Saturday on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s two-run triple, the closing role was left to Derek Law, who pitched 1 1/3 innings to earn his third save in as many opportunities.
The Yankees, meanwhile, are waiting for right fielder Aaron Judge to heat up. Judge was 1-for-3 with a walk Saturday and has batted .265 (40-for-151) with seven homers and 19 RBIs since June 21, when he returned after two months on the injured list with an oblique injury.
Since July 23, he has one home run and two RBIs in 16 games.
“Aaron Judge is a matter of time before he really locks in,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ll go through a stretch where he really carries us. Fortunately, a lot of the guys have really stepped up around him right now. I think there’s some subtle things that he’s working on to get himself right mechanically, but long-term he’ll be the beast that he normally is.
“I know that he’s going through a tough stretch by his standard right now, but I still look up and he’s basically a .900 OPS (.872). And he’s going to get hot again and go through the ceiling. So everyone can question it all they want, but he’s a tick away from being the stud that he always is.”
