Yankees’ rally comes up short in 8-7 loss to Blue Jays | Rapid reaction

The Yankees wasted four homers in losing to the Blue Jays on Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

NEW YORK — The Yankees have reached the stretch run of the 2018 season playing like a mediocre ballclub.

The trend has continued so far this weekend.

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World beaters on Friday night, the Yankees stunk it up for much of Saturday afternoon in losing 8-7 to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Four Yankees homers in the sixth and seventh innings turned a blowout into a tight game, but the end result was a 10th loss in 18 games.

The timing for this skid is terrible, as the sizzling Oakland Athletics are threatening to steal home-field advantage away from the Yankees in their expected American League Wild Card Game showdown on Oct. 3.

The Yankees went into Saturday up 1 1/2 games on Oakland for the top Wild Card spot. The Yanks have 14 games remaining, while the Athletics had 15 heading into Saturday’s in Baltimore.

The Yankees trailed 5-0 after five innings and 8-1 heading to the home seventh, then powered their way back into the game.

Miguel Andujar’s grand slam in the seventh made it a one-run game, but the Yankees were shut down the rest of the way.

Aaron Hicks walked with one out in the eighth and moved to second on a wild pitch, but he was stranded there when Didi Gregorius popped out to third and Gary Sanchez struck out.

Ken Giles then worked a 1-2-3 ninth to ice the game for the Jays.

Gregorius had a record-setting day for the Yankees, as he belted his 25th and 26th homers to break his own franchise mark for most homers in as season by a shortstop. His 25 in 2016 topped Derek Jeter’s 24 in 1999.

Giancarlo Stanton also homered for the Yankees, but the Blue Jays countered with three solo blasts in building a big lead off CC Sabathia, who was knocked out in the third inning in his shortest start since 2015.

Sabathia (7-7) retired the Jays 1-2-3 in the first inning on six pitches, but fell behind 3-0 in the second and was gone after 2 1/3 innings with the Yankees trailing 5-0.

Sabathia was hurt by the home run ball, as the Jays hit three solo shots, two coming from cleanup hitter Randal Grichuk.

Grichuk’s led off the Jays’ second with a 428-foot blast to left-center to ignite a three-run uprising, then he homered again in the third with nobody on and Kevin Pillar followed with a jack to make it 5-0.

That was all for Sabathia, who outing was his shortest since he pitched 2 1/3 innings in a 15-4 Yankees loss to the Texas Rangers on May 23, 2015. 

NOTABLE

— Closer Aroldis Chapman, on the DL since Aug. 22 with left knee tendinitis, felt healthy throwing a bullpen. This was his second in four days. He’s expected to pitch an inning in a simulated game on Monday or Tuesday, then be activated from the DL.

— Right fielder Aaron Judge wasn’t used the day after came off the disabled list and played two innings of defense.

LOOKING AHEAD

Sunday: Toronto Blue Jays at Yankees, 1:05 p.m., YES. LHP Thomas Pannone (2-1, 4.13) vs. RHP Lance Lynn (9-10, 5.01).

Monday: Off day

Tuesday: Boston Red Sox at Yankees, 1:05 p.m., WPIX. RHP Nathan Eovaldi (5-7, 4.22) vs. LHP J.A. Happ (16-6, 3.75).

Wednesday: Boston Red Sox at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES. LHP David Price (15-6, 3.42) vs. RHP Luis Severino (17-8, 3.46).

Thursday: Boston Red Sox at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (12-4, 3.53) vs. RHP Masahiro Tanaka (12-5, 3.47).

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.