NEW YORK — The Yankees could see the finish line of a low-scoring, hard-fought victory against the Blue Jays. All they asked of Devin Williams was three outs.
Turns out he couldn’t even get one.
The troubled closer blew the save in the Yankees’ 4-2 loss to Toronto on Friday. It’s anyone’s guess how much longer Aaron Boone will trust Williams.
Handed a 2-1 lead, Williams allowed George Springer a leadoff single, then promptly hit Andres Gimenez with a fastball in the knee. With runners on first and second, Williams surrendered a massive two-run double over Trent Grisham’s head in center.
That was Willams’ last pitch – and the start of vicious heckling from the stands. Mark Leiter allowed Addison Barger a run-scoring single that was charged to Williams, putting the final touches on the Yankees’ loss, not to mention Williams’ honeymoon period in the Bronx.
Ironically, only a half-inning earlier, the Yankees thought they’d fashioned a game-winning rally from an unlikely source.
It wasn’t Aaron Judge and his .412 average that did the damage. To the contrary, the Bombers took the lead on the backs of the four Yankees hitting under .200.
Between Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm, Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells, the eighth-inning rally lacked muscle, but it got the job done.
Bellinger led off with a pop up to no-man’s land in right – caught by, you guessed it, no one. Bellinger smartly took second on the Jays’ defensive lapse, after which Chisholm walked, Volpe was hit by a pitch,and Wells lifted a sacrifice fly to right.
With offense in short supply, the Yankees’ aggressive base running killed what might’ve been their best chance to erase Toronto’s early 1-0 lead.
With one out in the sixth, Bellinger drew a walk from left-handed reliever Brendon Little. What looked like a budding opportunity, however, turned to dust in a matter of seconds.
Actually, all it took was two perfect throws from Kirk, the Jays’ catcher, to keep the Yankees scoreless going into the seventh.
Kirk threw out Bellinger at second on an attempted steal. And then he did it again. Moments after Chisholm’s single, Kirk proved why he’s MLB’s second-toughest catcher to steal on.
Chisholm was caught by Kirk’s bullet to second base – a sequence that not only ended the inning, but defied baseball logic.
Why? Because Little had run the count to 3-0 on Volpe. That’s typically a hitter’s count, not a base stealer’s.
Chisholm would’ve been on second anyway had Volpe drawn a walk. And had Volpe jumped all over a get-me-over 3-0 pitch, Chisholm would’ve been on second or third or perhaps crossed the plate.
Instead, he was left in a cloud of dust at second base, no doubt regretting the decision to take on Kirk.
The Yankees didn’t get their first hit until Wells’ one-out single in the third inning. Orlando Cabrera punched a base hit to left, giving the Bombers a whiff of a rally.
Turns out that was just a tease. Grisham’s bouncer to first base snuffed out a run, as Wells, breaking on contact from third base, was cut down at the plate.
The Yankees had one more shot in the inning, though. The crowd stirred in anticipation as Judge stepped into the batter’s box, ready to break hearts as he has so many times this season.
But that was a false alarm, too. Judge hit a grounder to third baseman Ernie Clement. He calmly fired across the infield to Guerrero, ending the rally that never was.
NOTABLE
— Judge’s fifth-inning single extended his consecutive on-base streak to 22 games, the second-longest in the major leagues.
— The Yankees have averaged 41,106 fans per home game this season, their highest average attendance through their first 12 games of a season since Derek Jeter’s last season in 2014 (41,746).
— On this day in 1967, Whitey Ford notched his 237th and final victory over the White Sox at Yankee Stadium. He remains atop the Bombers’ all-time win list.
— Luke Weaver went into the game with a 13-inning scoreless streak. He was one of two MLB relievers to toss 13 innings without allowing a run this season.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saturday: Blue Jays at Yankees, 1:05 p.m., YES, MLBN. LHP Max Fried (4-0, 1.42) vs. RHP Kevin Gausman (2-2, 3.16).
Sunday: Blue Jays at Yankees, 1:35 p.m., YES, MLBN. RHP Clarke Schmidt (0-1, 7.45) vs. RHP Chris Bassitt (2-1, 1.88).
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Bob Klapisch may be reached at bklapisch@njadvancemedia.com.