Blue Jays win third straight against Yankees as momentum builds in AL East race

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NEW YORK — Remember back in early June when the Blue Jays were having their occasional struggles but the American League East race wasn’t yet considered a consolation dash for second?

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They may not quite be in range to run down the front-running Yankees in the stretch, but with a third consecutive win over their moribund division rivals — right here at their Bronx home — suddenly the Jays are just seven games back.

And it’s getting ugly at Yankee Stadium ,where the boos from the prototypical New York crowd of 45,538 grew louder by the episode of incompetence from the home side in Saturday’s momentum expanding 5-2 Jays win.

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For the Yankees, the finish line can’t come soon enough, especially after losing nine of their past 11 and more than 40-plus games remaining for both teams.

For the Jays, who have now won four in a row and are brimming with confidence, an epic-feeling series sweep is now in play on Sunday afternoon with ace Alek Manoah on the mound.

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It’s the first time the Jays — who were pre-season division favourites in the minds of many — have been within seven games of the Yankees since June 8, a distant 63 games ago.

Brimming with confidence once again, the Jays withstood four no-hit innings from Yankees starter Gerrit Cole before jumping on the five-time all star in the fifth.

Two RBI doubles from Jackie Bradley Jr. and Alejandro Kirk provided the damage as the Jays exited the inning with five hits and four runs, triggering a lust round of jeering directed at Cole as he returned to the Yankees dugout.

A week ago, it seemed as if it was the Jays who couldn’t do anything right but my how the tune has changed. The visitor’s clubhouse has been bumping with loud celebrations after each of the three wins here as the Jays have methodically picked apart their staggering opponent.

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“Our starting pitching has been awesome which sets the tone for a lot of different things,” manager John Schneider said prior to the Saturday matinee. “And I think the offensive approach has been very consistent up and down the lineup.”

From that perspective, the latest Jays win followed the script to perfection. Starter Mitch White scattered seven hits in his four innings, but allowed just one in giving his new team all you could ask from a fifth starter in what is normally one of the more hostile venues in the league.

That allowed Schneider to work his way through the bullpen arms as Adam Cimber, David Phelps, Anthony Bass, Zach Pop and finally Yimi Garcia took care of business.

“If you can get good starting pitching, things usually fall into place the way you have them planned,” Schneider said. “Having (starting pitching and offence) both clicking a little bit right now … if you put those two things together you’re usually going to do really well.”

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Essentially the Jays are doing everything the Yankees are not right now. Losers of nine of their past 11, the Bronx Bombers are looking more like bums and the pressure seems to be mounting on manager Aaron Boone’s team.

The Yankees won’t truly feel the heat until the margin gets inside four games, but with a two-game subway series against the NL East-leading Mets and the Jays heading to Boston for three, it’s getting mighty interesting.

“I don’t give a crap about the (diminishing) lead,” Boone said prior to Saturday’s game. “We can talk about whether it’s seven, eight, nine, 10 .. we need to play better.

“If we play like this, it’s not going to matter anyway.”

GAME ON

The Jays received yet another injury scare when Teoscar Hernandez fouled a ball off his foot in the eighth inning and was in obvious pain. Hernandez finished the at-bat — striking out — but was replaced in right field by Whit Merrifield in the bottom half … Crazy play at the plate in that four-run Jays fifth inning as Vlad Guerrero Jr. almost lapped Ramiel Tapia on the Kirk double. Tapia was safe but Guerrero was tagged out, potentially limiting the damage … The Jays improved to 5-4 at Yankee Stadium this season and 7-8 overall against their division rival. 

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SPRINGER ON THE MEND

Looks like the latest affliction to hit Jays centre fielder George Springer won’t keep him down for long.

Springer, who bruised his knee on a foul ball during an at-bat on Thursday, wasn’t in the starting lineup on Saturday but was available for pinch-hitting purposes.

The volume of setbacks for the hard-playing Springer has certainly been a challenge in his two seasons with the Jays.

“It’s tough, I think, whenever you’re playing through anything and it feels like he kind of has been since he’s been here,” Schneider said. “He deals with it well. A lot of time it’s with humour between me and him. I think he does a good job of handling it, all things considered.”