Cody Bellinger's strong throw home helps Yankees take down Blue Jays

Gary Phillips, New York Daily News on Sep 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — After Aaron Judge made a short, 67.9-mph cutoff throw instead of going home on a two-run single from Nathan Lukes in the Yankees’ loss to the Blue Jays on Friday, the right fielder and Aaron Boone made several attempts to spin what happened.

“The last couple of weeks — if you guys have been paying attention — we worked on different creative cuts and things like that,” Boone said Saturday morning after sharing some similarly puzzling and dismissive answers the night before. “We’ll continue to do that, and hopefully continue to evolve it as we go.”

But with Judge, clearly compromised by a right flexor strain, DH’ing and Cody Bellinger playing right on Saturday, there was no need for a “creative cut” on another Lukes single in the sixth inning. Instead, Bellinger charged the ball, fielded and came up firing toward the plate. Cutoff man Ben Rice let the 95.3-mph throw go by him before it took a bounce and ended up in Austin Wells’ glove.

The catcher then tagged Bo Bichette out at the plate, preserving a one-run lead in what became a 3-1 win for the Yankees, who are now three games behind Toronto in the American League East.

“I got a good jump on it,” Bellinger said. “Two outs, I assumed that they would be aggressive. I just wanted to make sure my footwork was all good and that I made a good throw to Wellsy there. He did a good job of getting the ball and putting the tag on.”

Bichette, having a stellar season at the plate, was banged up on the play and hopped off the field, which was immediately tarped with a monsoon setting in. However, he remained in the game following a one-hour, 46-minute rain delay that had the Yankees watching football in the clubhouse.

The pinstripers tacked onto their lead after that delay, as Wells recorded a sac fly in the bottom of the sixth.

The Yankees scored their first two runs in the second inning, as a fielding error from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. set them up for a Jasson Domínguez RBI single and Wells’ first sac fly of the day.

Domínguez made his first start since Aug. 30 on Saturday, partly because of his success against Chris Bassitt. The Martian entered Saturday’s game 6-for-9 with a home run and two RBI against the Jays’ starter.

Toronto scored in the fourth inning when the Yankees couldn’t turn an Isiah Kiner-Falefa grounder into a double play. That run, which followed two inning-opening walks, was the only one Luis Gil allowed over six innings.

“They’re a very competitive team that makes a lot of contact, so I’m trying to mix the pitches and locations there to be effective, as I was doing early in the game,” said the righty, who also tallied three hits, four walks, one strikeout and 90 pitches before the delay. “I ended up walking those guys, but fortunately, I was able to pick it up and come back for the fifth and sixth strong.”

The Yankees had a run taken off the board in the fifth when the Blue Jays challenged a tag play at first after a poor throw from Bichette pulled Guerrero off the base. Guerrero initially appeared to miss a tag on Bellinger, but replay showed the first baseman clipped the runner’s cleat.

Fortunately for the Yankees, Bellinger made up for his inconvenient foot placement with his arm an inning later. The Bombers’ bullpen, meanwhile, got scoreless outings from Luke Weaver, Fernando Cruz and David Bednar, who recorded a four-out save.

“I still feel like our best is in front of us from a bullpen standpoint,” Boone said. “We have the ability down there. It’s about getting these guys in position to be successful and then them all taking care of one another.”

With a win over their division rivals, the Yankees will try to win Sunday’s rubber match with their ace, Max Fried, on the mound.

Another Max, a future Hall of Famer by the name of Scherzer, will take the ball for Toronto.

“Tomorrow’s a huge one,” Boone said. “We know what’s at stake. We know how important these games are, but you also can’t make them bigger than what they are. It’s a game we gotta go play well, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

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