NEW YORK — At Yankee Stadium, the mask goes over your nose — and your eyes.
The fans were back, but they probably wished they weren’t as the Yankees’ bats quarantined and the back end of the bullpen couldn’t keep bearing the weight late in a 3-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Opening Day on Thursday afternoon in the Bronx.
To lead off the 10th inning, reliever Nick Nelson gave up a slicing double over the head of right fielder Aaron Judge. It easily scored extra-innings runner Jonathan Davis to put Toronto ahead for good.
In that moment, Gerrit Cole’s middling debut, Judge’s failures with runners on base and the thinness of the Yankees’ bullpen ultimately led to a rough way to start the season. Friday, however, the Yankees have off.
Cole went just 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs and throwing 97 pitches. He struck out eight — the second-most ever by a Yankees starter on Opening Day. Before Nelson gave up the go-ahead run, the Yankees’ kept the score at 2-all for 3 2/3 innings.
The stadium, empty for 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, had 10,850 fans — or 20% capacity, following New York state law.
The Yankees went hitless in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners. They struck out 13 times, but so did Toronto.
The Yankees’ relief unit was without Aroldis Chapman (suspension), Zack Britton (elbow surgery) and Justin Wilson (shoulder soreness).
Missed opportunities
They watched Judge fail twice in huge spots. In the ninth, he had runners on the corners with two outs and then struck out to send it into extra innings.
That rally started when Gary Sanchez (2-for-3) worked a leadoff walk. Mike Tauchman replaced him as the pinch runner at first base, and with Jay Bruce up, Tauchman stole second base and third base. Though Bruce struck out, Clint Frazier kept the inning alive with a walk.
Then things got dicey. DJ LeMahieu pounded the first pitch he saw into the dirt at third base. Tauchman immediately broke for home and was thrown out by a mile. Then Judge fanned.
Judge also had the bases loaded with one out and a 2-0 count against reliever David Phelps in the seventh. His grounder was directly at shortstop Bo Bichette, who turned an easy 6-4-3 double play to end the threat. It killed the Yankees’ best rally of the afternoon that saw singles from Sanchez and Clint Frazier and a walk by DJ LeMahieu.
In the 10th, with Judge as the extra-innings runner on second, righty Julian Merryweather struck out Aaron Hicks looking, and then Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres swinging.
Getting ahead
Sanchez put the Yankees ahead, 2-1, with two outs in the second inning. He crushed the first pitch Hyun Jin Ryu offered him 407 feet and halfway up the left-field bleachers. It scored Gleyber Torres, who had singled.
The blast came after Sanchez hit just .200 in spring training and came into the year looking to redeem himself following a .147 batting average and a playoff benching.
Sanchez followed that up by throwing out a stealing Randal Grichuk at second base to end the seventh. Then he led off the bottom half with an infield single to deep shortstop.
Cole world
It definitely wasn’t the afternoon Cole wanted.
It was his first time pitching in front of fans at Yankee Stadium, and it got off to a great start, as he needed just 12 pitches for a 1-2-3 first inning. But he labored through the second frame, giving up three straight hits, including Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s RBI single that gave Toronto a 1-0 advantage. By the time he pumped a 99 mph fastball past Danny Jansen to end it, he’d thrown 26 pitches in the inning.
Cole was effective through the next three innings. Then, with an out in the sixth inning, he left a first-pitch mistake slider over the plate to Teoscar Hernandez, who clobbered it for a solo shot to left field. That knotted things at 2-all.
Cole then battled Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a seven-pitch, full-count walk before Boone replaced him with Chad Green. Green’s first-pitch curveball to Gurriel got the inning-ending double play.
Cole’s counterpart didn’t fare any better. Ryu also gave up two runs over 5 1/3 innings.
Green ended up throwing 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Jonathan Loaisiga followed him with a scoreless eighth before Darren O’Day’s worked a blank ninth.
Up next
Yankees righty Corey Kluber (0-0, 0.00 ERA in 2020) vs. Blue Jays righty Ross Stripling (3-3, 3.77 ERA in 2020) at Yankee Stadium at 1:05 p.m. Saturday.
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Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
