Yankees suffer four-game sweep to Blue Jays, fall to second place in AL East

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on Jul 3, 2025

Published in Baseball

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For the first time in nearly three months, the Yankees have fallen out of first place altogether.

Thursday night’s 8-5 loss in Toronto capped a four-game sweep by the division-leading Blue Jays and dropped the Yankees into a tie for second place in the American League East.

Toronto’s George Springer crushed a pair of two-run home runs and finished the series 7 for 14 with four homers and 11 RBIs.

It’s the first time since April 13 that the Yankees (48-39) haven’t owned at least a share of first place. They enter this weekend’s Subway Series having lost 14 of their last 20 games.

Making matters worse Thursday was the early departure of starter Clarke Schmidt, who exited after three innings and 55 pitches due to right forearm tightness.

Schmidt allowed three runs on four hits — including the first of Springer’s blasts — before leaving the game.

The right-handed Schmidt has been among the Yankees’ top arms this season, pitching to a 3.32 ERA in 14 starts.

His 28 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings last month marked the longest such stretch by a Yankees starter since 1961, but he’s allowed seven runs in six innings since the streak ended.

Thursday’s game was tied, 3-3, when right-hander Clayton Beeter relieved Schmidt to begin the bottom of the fourth.

Toronto took the lead for good in that inning when Nathan Lukes won a 14-pitch battle against Beeter by chopping a two-run double down the third-base line.

The lefty-swinging Lukes fell behind 0-2 in that at-bat before fouling off eight two-strike pitches from Beeter. His go-ahead hit came on a 97-mph fastball well above the strike zone.

The Yankees trailed, 6-3, going into the seventh, and an RBI double by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a run-scoring groundout by Anthony Volpe made it a one-run game.

But with runners at the corners and two outs, pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton tapped the ball back to reliever Chad Green on a first-pitch slider to extinguish the scoring threat.

Springer’s second home run came in the eighth inning against Luke Weaver, giving Toronto a pair of insurance runs.

The Yankees had 12 hits but went 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base. That continued a series-long trend for the Yankees, who finished just 9 for 50 (.180) with runners in scoring position and stranded 40 baserunners during the four-game sweep.

A bright spot for the Yankees was the return of Trent Grisham, who started Thursday for the first time since leaving Monday’s game with left hamstring tightness.

Grisham hit a second-inning solo home run against Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt. It was the 16th homer of the season for Grisham, who is now one shy of his career high.

The Yankees also got four hits from Jasson Domínguez.

The Blue Jays walked Aaron Judge three times, including intentionally in the eighth. Judge was walked eight times in the series, including five times intentionally.

The Yankees led the AL East by seven games on May 28, but their summer swoon has dropped them a game behind the Blue Jays (49-38) and into a tie with the Tampa Bay Rays (48-39) for second place. The Yankees were in sole possession of the AL East lead from April 14 until Wednesday, when the Blue Jays tied them atop the division.

With a 5-2 edge in the season series, Toronto holds the tiebreaker over the Yankees, too.

Thursday capped the Blue Jays’ third-ever four-game sweep of the Yankees and their first in Toronto.

The Yankees now set their sights on the Subway Series, with a three-game set against the Mets at Citi Field set to begin on Friday afternoon. After losing 14 of 17 games, the Mets have won two in a row.