TORONTO — With their ace on the mound and a chance to leave Canada with a much-needed series win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday, the Yankees embarrassed themselves. Again.
After another night of atrocious baseball, the Bombers fell, 8-4. The loss featured four errors from the Yankees. It also put Aaron Boone’s 56-46 ballclub four games behind the Blue Jays, who haven’t relinquished their lead on the American League East since sweeping the Yanks over four games at Rogers Centre earlier this month.
“Just not good enough,” Boone said, but he went on to say that the Yankees “have a very good defensive club.” Never mind that they totaled seven errors in the series, including two in Monday’s ugly loss, and entered Wednesday ranked 17th in Outs Above Average despite claiming to prioritize defensive improvement over the offseason.
The Yankees were in the top 10 for Defensive Runs Saved and Fielding Run Value, but poor fielding and fundamentals have been a problem for them for some time now. Just ask the Dodgers’ World Series-winning team from a year ago.
“We haven’t been playing that well on defense,” said Aaron Judge, who didn’t make an error Wednesday. “We got a lot of things we gotta clean up, and that’s one of the things we gotta clean up.”
The Yankees’ latest defensive disaster began in the fifth inning on Wednesday, as Max Fried walked two batters and threw a wild pitch before making a costly throwing error on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. tapper toward third.
Fried, who typically fields his position well, tried throwing off-balance and around Davis Schneider, who raced home. The throw skipped away from J.C. Escarra and trickled to the backstop. That allowed not only Schneider to score, but also George Springer, as neither Fried nor Oswald Peraza covered home.
“That’s one of those balls that’s in no man’s land,” Boone said. “It’s kind of a swinging bunt base hit where you’re trying to keep a run off the board. It’s a little do or die there.”
Added Fried: “That can’t happen.”
Ball gets away from Escarra and two runs score, 4-2 Jays pic.twitter.com/tU3w4hAzCu
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) July 24, 2025
Jazz Chisholm Jr. made another throwing error later in the inning. That didn’t lead to any more runs, but the slop-fest was far from over.
Cody Bellinger, a terrific defender, couldn’t find an Ernie Clement flyball in the lights in the sixth inning, which officially resulted in a one-out triple. Myles Straw followed with an RBI double.
“I saw it off the bat,” Bellinger said. “I lost it in the sky once it got above the lights. I was just trying to guess where it was going to be, and I overran it a little bit.”
Fried, making his first start since a blister ripped on his index finger before the All-Star break, then exited with blood on his pinky. He said that came from a cut, a product of throwing his curveball.
“It happens. That’s nothing to worry about,” Fried said, adding that his blister was fine following the start.
The lefty totaled six runs (4 earned) over 5.1 innings, as Ben Rice was charged with an error at first before the sixth frame ended. That scored another run for the Blue Jays.
The seventh inning, meanwhile, saw Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake get ejected. Boone joined him moments later after arguing with home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez.
Neither were on the bench when Jasson Domínguez added to the collection of calamities in the bottom of the seventh, as the left fielder bobbled a bouncing ball, giving Guerrero extra bases and the Yankees their final error of the night.
Bo Bichette proceeded with a two-run homer off Scott Effross, the final nail in the Yankees’ self-made coffin.
Domínguez actually started the scoring on Wednesday, smoking a solo shot off Chris Bassitt in the second inning. A Guerrero double and a Clement single gave Toronto its first lead in the fourth, but Anthony Volpe, dealing with his own defensive woes this season, tied the game with a homer in the fifth.
Judge re-tied the game in the sixth after Fried’s poor throw, hitting a two-run jack for his 37th homer of the season. Alas, the Yankees’ power surge came with a defensive meltdown.
“We’ve got to, obviously, tighten it up,” Boone said. “I’m confident we will. We continue to work at it. We have good defenders here, but tonight was obviously a rough night for us.”
The way Boone sees it, the Yankees’ carelessness in the field has mostly just been at the Rogers Centre. While that’s not exactly true, they did have four errors in the four-game series that took place in Toronto from June 30 to July 3.
“I think it’s here and it’s in this building we haven’t played well,” Boone said. “I don’t know if it’s just coming to the turf. That’s not really an excuse. It’s the same game, but obviously, I think in these two series, we’ve given them too many outs, and it’s cost us.
“We’ve had two crappy series up here. There’s no way around it. So maybe we’ll get a chance to come back here at some point and flip that script. This is a place, over the years, where we’ve actually played pretty well. As frustrating as it is, and as pissed off as you are when we don’t play our best, obviously against a team ahead of us, we also have to understand that it’s a series and we gotta keep moving.”
The Blue Jays, to their credit, are speedy and skilled at putting the ball in play. They’ve benefitted from 12 Yankees errors in 10 total matchups this season.
Boone also reasoned that his players could be getting “tight,” afraid to make additional mistakes after initial errors occur.
“The last thing I want us to do is get tight and stuff like that and play to not make a mistake,” Boone said. “Can’t do that, but we gotta just keep working at it. Keep working at our fundamentals, day in and day out, and it’ll continue to get better.”
Boone recently shared a similar sentiment about his team’s poor baserunning. Judge, however, doesn’t believe his teammates are pressing after defensive mishaps.
“I don’t think so,” the captain said. “A lot of these guys had a long playoff run last year. We’ve been in big moments, big situations. So everybody in this room is battle-tested.
“We never feel like anything’s getting tight in here or guys are getting nervous or scared. You gotta play aggressive. That’s the mentality we try to play with.”
Whatever the reason for the Yankees’ blunders, they’re a huge reason why the squad is now 3-7 against Toronto this year, securing a season series loss before the two teams play in the Bronx in September.
The Yankees are also 11-18 against their AL East rivals. Boone and his players, well-aware of that record, said the team’s trend of poor divisional play needed to change prior to this latest Blue Jays series. Judge added that “it’s a good time to start getting hot” after winning a three-game set over the Braves out of the All-Star break.
“Oh, it’s coming,” he insisted Wednesday with the Yankees at rock bottom. “We haven’t hit our hot streak yet, but we’re going to. And when it does, watch out.”