Blue Jays implode again in ninth as New York Yankees claim series

Ben Rice and Jose Caballero each homer late for visitors, while Toronto skipper ejected from game

Get the latest from Mike Ganter straight to your inbox

Published Jun 14, 2026  •  Last updated 3 minutes ago  •  5 minute read

New York Yankees' Ben Rice hits a two-run home run in the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on June 14, 2026 in Toronto. Photo by Cole Burston /GETTY IMAGES

For the second day in a row, the Blue Jays and Yankees took things down to the wire, and for the second time, a Yankees ninth-inning home run settled it.

Article content

Only this time, New York didn’t stop at the one homer they got from Paul Goldschmidt in Saturday’s victory.

Article content

Article content

First, Ben Rice turned a tie ball game into another Yankees’ lead with a no-doubt two-run shot to deep right, and then Jose Caballero provided some added cushion with a three-run shot to blow Sunday’s game open off reliever Tommy Nance.

The 8-3 win gave the Yankees the series as Toronto slipped to 8-6-1 in home series.

The Jays were very much in this one into the ninth, but again, for the second day in a row, just failed to pull the trigger on too many earlier opportunities.

In back-to-back losses combined, the Jays were a dismal 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position, an average that is going to find you on the short end of a score more often than not.

In Sunday’s loss, the Jays loaded the bases in the second and came away with nothing. In the fourth, with a chance to break it open against susceptible Yankees starter Will Warren, the Jays managed to plate a run but stranded runners on second and third.

Article content

Article content

All told, they were 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position on a day when the Jays could have put this one out of reach early with any semblance of timely hitting.

“Yeah, I think just some missed opportunities,” manager John Schneider said of his takeaway from the weekend series. “You look up and you’ve got the starter on the ropes a little bit and he’s close to 100 pitches through four and you have some situations where you get bases loaded or second and third but less than two out. You’ve gotta capitalize. We just didn’t do that.”

Bullpen woes

With closer Louis Varland having pitched the two previous games and having logged a heavy workload to date, the start of the ninth inning with the game tied went to young right-hander Braydon Fisher. Fisher didn’t help his own cause when he threw wildly to first on an excuse-me single chopper down the third base line that allowed Goldschmidt to take second with none out. Rice made the oopsie redundant with his 19th homer of the year.

Article content

Tommy Nance took over for Fisher and didn’t fare any better, giving up a three-run homer to Caballero to realistically end the Jays hopes of a late comeback and series win.

Fisher takes the loss

Fisher took the loss to fall to 2-2 while Camilo Doval, with a clean eighth, picked up his third win against no losses.

The Jays got through the first four innings tied at 2-2, which had to be considered advantage Toronto as the Yankees had a decided edge between the starting pitchers in this one with Warren coming in with seven wins and a sub-four ERA, while the Jays countered with Patrick Corbin, who has been a bit of a saviour for the pitching-strapped Jays, but still began the day just 2-3 with a 4.55 ERA.

Corbin blinked first, giving up a pair in the second to the bottom of the Yankees order as Max Schuemann, Anthony Volpe and catcher Ali Sanchez strung together three hits with Volpe’s single surrounded by doubles from the other two giving the visitors an early lead.

Article content

The Jays’ issues cashing in baserunners continued as they loaded the bases in the second but came up empty.

They did scratch out a run in the third as Nathan Lukes led off with a single and eventually scored on Kazuma Okamoto’s infield single.

Toronto got another in the fourth as Ernie Clement came in to score on a Lukes single.

The Yankees re-took the lead in the sixth with the bottom of the order again doing the bulk of the work. Jazz Chisolm Jr. got the inning started with a pinch-hit walk, stole second and took third on a groundout to the right side.

But a slick fielding play by reliever Spencer Miles got Chisholm caught in a rundown between home and third where the Yankees infielder was eventually tagged.

Chisholm did extend the rundown long enough for Schuemann to get all the way to second from where he scored on a Volpe single for a 3-2 lead.

Read More

1. 

   Louis Varland serves up two-run homer in ninth as Yankees use long ball to beat Blue Jays

2. 

   Blue Jays get starting catcher back as things slowly getting back to normal

Article content

Jays manager ejected

Jays manager Schneider was ejected from the game in the eighth as he took issue with a balk call against reliever Jeff Hoffman that gave the Yankees a baserunner at third with just one out. Hoffman eventually stranded that baserunner, but not before his manager got the hook for the second time this season and 14th time in his career.

Turns out the balk was just one issue Schneider had with this particular umpiring crew. He also didn’t like the extended conversation they allowed to happen with Caballero and eventually Yankees manager Aaron Boone after the former objected to a warning about him intentionally delaying the pitch clock.

Caballero appears to purposefully stall in properly addressing the pitcher, which had plate umpire Steven Jaschinski warning him about this practice. Caballero clearly disagreed and an argument ensued, leaving Jays pitcher Miles on the mound waiting to make his next pitch.

“There’s a lot of players in this league,” Schneider said afterwards, “but there seems to be one guy that has an issue with (delaying the pitch clock).

Article content

“It sucks that a pitcher like Spencer Miles has to sit out there for as long as he did (while they go back and forth). It could have been handled a lot quicker and more efficiently than it was,” Schneider said.

Schneider was clear that neither the balk call nor the extended confab between the Yankees and the umpiring crew that left his pitcher twiddling his thumbs on the mound were the reason the Jays lost, but he wanted it known that he wasn’t happy with either.

Davis Schneider finds his stroke

Lost in the Yankees’ late-game heroics was a solid day at the plate for recently recalled infielder/outfielder Davis Schneider.

Schneider had the game-tying home run in the sixth as well as a single and a walk in four plate appearances. The popular Schneider has continued to get on base via the walk but has been struggling to put together many hits this season.

[email protected]

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

Article content