Yankees misfit Sonny Gray bombed again in loss to Blue Jays | Rapid reaction

Right-hander Sonny Gray’s spot in the Yankees’ rotation could be in jeopardy after his two-inning, five-inning start in Friday night’s 6-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

TORONTO — A relaxed Yankees right-hander Sonny Gray did a little singing to the clubhouse stereo before his Friday night start against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Six days after his atrocious showing last weekend at Yankee Stadium against the Boston Red Sox, Gray was confident that his between-starts work with pitching coach Larry Rothschild would lead to a rebound outing against the also-ran Toronto Blue Jays.

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Two innings in, long reliever David Hale was in for Gray, the Yankees were down five runs and the Blue Jays were on their way to a series-opening 6-2 win at Rogers Centre.

It’s back to the drawing board time for Gray.

And it might be time for the Yankees to do something drastic to deal with the weakest link on an otherwise great ballclub.

It might be time to call up rookie Jonathan Loaisiga again … or give Hale a shot at starting … or to trade ASAP for available Blue Jays 10-game winner J.A. Happ. 

Seriously, it might be time for the Yankees, at least for the time being, to go with just about any option other than Sonny Gray in their rotation.

The Yankees have been and done that for too long hoping they’d get what they thought they were trading it last July.

Gray (5-7) said it best last Saturday night after his six-run, 2 1/3-inning start ignited an 11-0 loss to the Red Sox when he stated, “I feel like we’re the best team in baseball four out of five days.”

Gray was just as bad allowing five runs in two innings against the Blue Jays on six hits, two walks, a hit batter and two wild pitches.

The big blow was a three-run homer by Justin Smoak that capped a five-run second. 

“Another poor performance,” Gray said. “I’m frustrated, but at the same time I’ve got to come up with some solution if I want to continue to go out there and compete.”

Gray faced 15 batters and retired just six on a night his ERA shot up to 5.85. The outing was Gray’s seventh in 17 starts this season in which he didn’t get through five innings and the fifth time that he didn’t get through four.

Just like against Boston, Gray ran into trouble after beginning his night by retiring two batters in a row. This time, he escaped first-inning damage by striking out Russell Martin on a questionable 2-2 checked swing after two walks and a line single loaded the bases.

Gray wasn’t as fortunate in the second.

Randal Grichuk hit a leadoff double and scored on a one-out hit by Devan Travis, who took second on a wild pitch and scored on a hit by Curtis Granderson. After Gray struck out Teoscar Hernandez for the second out, Yangervis Solarte singled and Smoak followed with a three-run homer to right on an 0-1 slider that split the plate thigh high.

Gray hit the next batter, Kevin Pillar, before striking out Martin to end the inning … and his night.

Gray needed 62 pitches to get through two innings and just 34 of them were strikes.

“It’s not early in the season anymore,” Gray said. “This is when you’re expected to go out there and contribute and get in some type of rhythm and put together solid starts back to back. I haven’t even been close to being able to do that.”

The silver lining was Hale allowing just one run over 5 2/3 innings of long relief in a 75-pitch outing that should but won’t consider skipping Gray of his last scheduled turn before the All-Star break next Wednesday in Baltimore.

“No, I don’t think we would do that before the All-Star break,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s got another one coming up in Baltimore. I do feel like it’s one of those things that can click for him. One good start can lead to another and it can start to snowball like we’ve seen at times this year. But we’ve got to help him get there in every way.

NOTABLE

— The Red Sox beat the Royals 10-5 in Kansas City to extend their AL East lead to two games over the Yankees, who haven’t been that far out of first since May 31.

— A starter in Triple-A this season, Hale held the Jays scoreless from the third through the seventh before allowing an eighth-inning run on two doubles.

— Center fielder Aaron Hicks accounted for the Yankees’ first run with a third-inning homer, his 16th on the season and fifth in five games.

— Right fielder Aaron Judge was 0 for 5 with three strikeouts. He’s now hitting .188 with seven homers and 14 RBI in 37 road games compared to .355 with 17 homers and 43 RBIs in 46 home games.

— The Yankees blew a shot to get back in the game in the fifth. Down 5-1, they scored a run and had the bases loaded with one out, but Giancarlo Stanton was rung up (after swinging through ball four twice) and Didi Gregorius lined out to left.

LOOKING AHEAD

Saturday: Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays, 4:07 p.m., YES. RHP Luis Severino (13-2, 1.98) vs. LHP J.A. Happ (10-4, 4.03).

Sunday: Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 p.m., YES. RHP Domingo German (2-4, 5.37) vs. LHP Ryan Borucki (0-1, 2.77).

Monday: Yankees at Baltimore Orioles, doubleheader, 4:05 p.m., YES. Game 1, LHP CC Sabathia (6-3, 3.02) vs. TBA. Game 2, RHP Jonathan Loaisiga (2-0, 3.00) or RHP Luis Cessa (0-1, 5.00) vs. TBA.

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.