TORONTO — In what has been a historic start to their season, the Yankees got a dose of reality on Sunday.
After taking a five-run lead into the bottom of the sixth — looking like they were going to cruise to a 10th straight win — the Yankee bullpen imploded and the Blue Jays roared back to win, 10-9, at Rogers Centre.
It was just the Yankees’ second loss in their last 18 games.
And it came out of nowhere, as Miguel Castro and Wandy Peralta both gave up huge homers that altered the outcome.
A two-run shot by Josh Donaldson gave the Yankees the lead in the third and Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres had run-scoring doubles in the fifth.
The Yankees’ Josh Donaldson hits a home run against the Blue Jays in the third inning.
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Back-to-back homers by light-hitting Kyle Higashioka and Marwin Gonzalez made it 8-3 in the top of the sixth and even though Luis Severino wasn’t at his best, the Yankees appeared to be well in control.
But the game began to unravel for them in the bottom of the inning, as the first two batters of the inning reached to end Severino’s outing following a single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a walk to Alejandro Kirk.
Miguel Castro got Teoscar Hernandez to hit into a force out and struck out Santiago Espinal, but walked Matt Chapman to load the bases.
Following a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. gave the Blue Jays life with a grand slam to cut the Yankees’ lead to one.
Blue Jays left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (13) hits a grand slam against the Yankees in the sixth inning.
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Yankees reliever Wandy Peralta reacts to getting pulled from the game against the Blue Jays in the seventh inning.
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Raimel Tapia followed with a double and Wandy Peralta came in to face Springer. Peralta got Springer to hit a foul pop-up near the first-base dugout, where LeMahieu made a nice play to finally end the inning.
But like Castro, Peralta faltered in the seventh.
With one on and one out, Peralta walked Kirk, drawing another visit from Blake — and again, the Blue Jays answered with a home run, as Teoscar Hernandez hit one out to center.
The three-run shot made it 10-8 to complete the improbable comeback.
Anthony Rizzo, pinch hitting for Higashioka with one out in the eighth, hit a solo homer off left-hander Tim Mayza that made it 10-9.
Jose Trevino then pinch hit for Joey Gallo — yes, you read that right — and walked.
Jordan Roman…
