Yankees commit four errors in loss, drop series to Toronto and fall 4 games out of first

TORONTO –  Aaron Boone simply couldn’t watch his dumpster fire defense try to field the baseball any longer.

OK, that isn’t why Boone was ejected in the seventh inning of Wednesday night’s embarrassing 8-4 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. No, that was a result of the Yankees manager objecting to the strike zone of plate umpire Manny Gonzalez, finally having had his fill after what appeared to be a high called third strike on Anthony Volpe (pitching coach Matt Blake was ejected moments before Boone’s fourth ejection of the season).

But focusing on balls and strikes for this loss – which, to his credit, Boone did not – would be like blaming the Titanic’s sinking on something other than the iceberg.

The Yankees (56-46), for whom playing the game fundamentally well consistently has been a steep hill to climb for years now, committed four errors in paving the way to a loss that should have been accompanied by the old Benny Hill Show theme, Yakety Sax.

The Yankees, swept here in a four-game series from June 30-July 3, fell four games behind the AL-East leading Blue Jays (60-42). Toronto improved to 7-3 against the Yankees this season, including 6-1 at Rogers Centre.

“Obviously, we’ve had two crappy series up here, there’s no way around it,” Boone said. “Maybe we’ll get a chance to come back here at some point and flip that script.”

Of the defense, which committed seven errors this series and 11 overall in the seven games here, Boone said: “Just not good enough. I think we have a very good defensive club but clearly in the seven games we’ve played up here, giving them extra outs, whether it’s through an error or not making a play that we need to make, that’s cost us in those two series. We’ve got to obviously tighten it up. Confident we will.”

It was a crazy, back-and-forth game in which the Blue Jays scored two runs each in innings 4-thru-7 to take an 8-4 lead.

Aaron Judge’s 37th home run – the Yankees also got homers from Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez – tied it 4-4 in the top of the sixth inning. But with one out in the bottom half, Cody Bellinger, typically excellent in the field, lost Ernie Clement’s routine fly ball because of a combination of the sky, still not completely dark from the setting sun, and the stadium lights, the play going for a triple. Myles Straw’s RBI double made it 5-4 and Max Fried was replaced by Jonathan Loaisiga. After retiring pinch hitter Nathan Lukes, pinch hitter Will Wagner hit a grounder to first that Ben Rice misplayed for an error and Straw came in to make it 6-4.

“I saw it off the bat and lost it in the sky when it got above the lights and overran it,” Bellinger said. “It’s gotta be an out, really.”

As the Yankees were going down in order in the top of the seventh, first Blake and then Boone were tossed by Gonzalez.

“That wasn’t our issue tonight,” Boone said of the strike zone. “We gave them too many outs.”

Vlad Guerrero Jr. led off the bottom half against Scott Effross with a sharp single to left and took second when Dominguez booted it for the Yankees’ fourth error. Bo Bichette’s 13th homer followed to make it 8-4.

Fried, making his first start since coming out of his July 12 start against the Cubs with a blister on his left index finger, allowed six runs (four earned), six hits and three walks over 5 1/3 innings. He threw 102 pitches.

Fried, a three-time Gold Glove winner, made one of the Yankees’ errors in the fifth, leading to two runs.

With runners at second and third after a wild pitch, Guerrero squibbed one to the third base side of the mound where Fried fielded the ball and hurried his throw trying for Schneider. The low throw skittered away from J.C. Escarra, which also allowed Springer to score for a 4-2 Toronto lead.

“I just tried to throw around him (Schneider),” Fried said. “It was a tough angle and just not a good throw.”

The Yankees, who have lost 21 of their last 35, hoped Tuesday’s stirring 5-4 victory, provided by Rice’s ninth-inning homer, might kickstart a stretch of good play. Wednesday quickly let the air from that balloon.

“Oh, it’s coming,” Judge said. “We haven’t had our hot streak yet, but we’re going to. When it does, watch out.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.