The Bronx is falling.
A lifeless effort on Monday saw the Yankees drop their seventh game in nine tries following a barnstorming 13-game win streak, falling to the Toronto Blue Jays in their series opener 8-0 at Yankee Stadium.
Marcus Semien cracked a pair of home runs to bookend the Blue Jays’ fifth straight victory, headlined by an exclamation point of a grand slam in the ninth inning.
It accounted for half of Toronto’s four home runs off Yankee pitchers on the day, including a pair of solo shots in the first inning to get the visitors going off starter Jamison Taillon.
Semien started his big day by taking Taillon out into the left-field stands for his 36th home run of the season.
The very next batter in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went out the opposite side, driving his 40th home run of the season into the right-field seats. The youngster’s round-tripper made him and his father, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Jr., just the second father-son tandem in MLB history to hit 40 home runs in a single season. Cecil and Prince Fielder are the only father-son tandem to do that.
That was enough support for Blue Jays starter Hyun-jin Ryu, who stifled Yankees bats all afternoon across six innings in which he allowed just three hits to go with six strikeouts and no walks.
Taillon would settle and post five scoreless innings but would get touched up for one more in the seventh — his final frame of the day — when Lourdes Gurriel drove in Teoscar Hernandez with a single.
New York’s bullpen would implode in the ninth inning as Brooks Kriske allowed the Blue Jays to put the series opener out of sight.
Hernandez cracked his 25th home run of the season to lead off the ninth, putting Toronto up four. Kriske proceeded to walk Grichuk, Gurriel, and Jake Lamb to load the bases before Semien launched the cherry on top of a monster day, sending a majestic shot down the left-field line to clear the bases.
The loss drew the Yankees level with the Boston Red Sox for second place in the division and for the top spot in the AL Wild Card standings as the progress made by one of the longest winning streaks in franchise history has all but disappeared.
