The surging Toronto Blue Jays beat the struggling Yankees 6-3 Wednesday night, knocking them out of the AL’s top wild-card slot. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 41st home run.

Since winning 13 games in a row, the Yankees have dropped five straight and nine of their last eleven. With this loss, they fell a half-game behind Boston in the race for the first wild-card spot.

The Blue Jays won their eighth straight game after Teoscar Hernandez hit a go-ahead single in the seventh inning and Guerrero connected off Aroldis Chapman to start the ninth. The Blue Jays have closed to within 1 1/2 games of the Yankees.

When Guerrero hit a fastball many rows back in the left-field seats, he extended Toronto’s lead. He’s three short of his father Vladimir Srcareer .’s high, which he established with the Montreal Expos in 2000.

“He’s a stud,” Alek Manoah, a Blue Jays rookie pitcher, remarked. “Just everything he does for our team and the way he’s been able to struggle even though some tough times this year, he’s finding ways to keep the squad together and maintain some positivity.”

“So he’s not just bringing the bat to the plate. It’s his cheerful demeanor in the locker room and in the dugout that really adds a lot of energy to our club “he stated

Guerrero reached three times in one night after his 14-game hitting streak came to an end. Toronto won its tenth game in a row. With a.320 batting average, he leads the AL, and his average has been above.300 in all but one game this season.

During a three-run fourth, Marcus Semien hit a two-run single. On Hernandez’s hit off Clay Holmes, he drove in the go-ahead run, and Boston went on to win 2-1 over AL East-leading Tampa Bay.

On a night when Toronto set a season-high with 11 walks, including a 13-pitch free pass by Hernandez in the fifth, Jake Lamb added a sacrifice fly in the eighth. It was Toronto’s most walks since Aug. 26, 2015, when they also got 11 at Texas.

 

 

Larry Walker becomes the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s second Canadian inductee.

Larry Walker of Maple Ridge, B.C., became only the second Canadian to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, after Ferguson Jenkins. 1:58

In the fifth inning, Brett Gardner hit a three-run homer to tie the game. It was the Mets’ first extra-base hit since Gary Sanchez’s two-run homer in the sixth inning of their 8-7 loss to Baltimore on Sunday.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone stated, “We know we have the men capable, but we have to get it done.” “I appreciate that I’ve been a broken record this week, but this is the group that we fully believe in, and we’ve got to turn things around, which I know we will, but it’s been a frustrating few days for us on the offensive side.”

In his second career start at Yankee Stadium, Manoah gave three runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings. On May 27, he made his major league debut at New York, allowing two hits in six innings in the first game of a doubleheader.

“These games mean a lot more to me than my debut,” Manoah said. “I’ll just keep going out there and giving it my all.” “It makes no difference what day it is.

Trevor Richards (6-2), who had thrown for Tampa Bay and Milwaukee before joining Toronto, earned the win after pitching 1 2/3 innings.

Adam Cimber struck out Anthony Rizzo with two outs in the seventh inning to keep the score at 4-3 and then had a spotless eighth. Jordan Romano recorded his 16th save in 17 opportunities with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Luis Gil, a rookie, returned to the New York rotation and pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowing three runs and one hit. He walked seven batters while striking out six.

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