NEW YORK – New York, the Jay-Z song goes, is a concrete jungle where dreams are made of, where there’s nothing you can’t do, which seems to make it a fitting spot right now for a Toronto Blue Jays team still working out what exactly they are this year.
Last year, they needed about two months before really finding themselves, particularly at the plate, becoming a pesky, high-contact team capable of getting to slug, underpinned by solid pitching and spectacular, stingy defence.
Their game was clear, distinctive and they fulfilled some dreams in the Bronx last October.
“We’re not the same team we were last year,” said centre-fielder Daulton Varsho. “We have to find a different identity than what we were because obviously there are different guys in the clubhouse, different lineup. So understanding who we are now, we have to get that identity to come out. I thought (Monday in a 7-6 loss to the Yankees) and the Detroit series were really good for us, where it’s like, OK, we’re getting to an identity. We don’t really know exactly what that is yet, but we’re starting to have really good team at-bats.”
Getting to the point where that flows more than it ebbs is the challenge of the moment, one that continued Tuesday night in a 5-4 loss to the New York Yankees.
The Blue Jays pressed Will Warren and put together the type of inning they did so often in 2025 during a pesky fourth, when they plated three runs on four singles, a walk and a sacrifice bunt. But they didn’t add on there despite having runners on the corners and one out, came up empty first and third with one out in the first and couldn’t punch through with men on the corners and two outs in the seventh.
The Yankees, meanwhile, know exactly who they are and delivered to type, using two big swings – a Ryan McMahon three-run shot in the fourth that tied the game 3-3, and Ben Rice’s decisive two-run drive in the fifth – to spoil an otherwise dominant display from Dylan Cease.
A second straight setback dropped the Blue Jays back to a season-worst-tying six games below .500 at 21-27 and scoring runs won’t get any easier in the remaining two games at Yankee Stadium. Trey Yesavage starts against Cam Schlittler and his 1.35 ERA on Wednesday, while Thursday, Spencer Miles will either start or pitch behind an opener against Carlos Rodon.
Varsho led the offence with four hits, scoring the Blue Jays’ first run in the third on Yohendrick Pinango’s RBI single, and has quietly been on a heater over the past 10 games, during which he’s 16-for-39 (.410) with a homer and six RBIs.
Manager John Schneider bumped him up to third Tuesday, behind George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., as he continues to seek out “the right set of pockets” in his batting order. Over the next couple of weeks, when Nathan Lukes, Addison Barger and Alejandro Kirk could potentially return from injury, that process should become somewhat easier as the Blue Jays begin to look more as they planned.
For the time being, though, “the best way to put it is, OK, who’s playing the part of so and so that’s not here, and how do you have to attack that spot,” said Schneider. “Right now, trying to get Vlad going and trying to get George going and try to get them up as much as we can.”
For the second straight game, that meant at-bats in the ninth with a chance to change the game for both, set up by grinding plate appearances by the bottom of the order. An Andres Gimenez walk and pinch-hit single by Ernie Clement, who didn’t start due to strep throat, set the stage for Springer, who lined a ball off Camillo Doval’s glove for the first out, and Guerrero, who drove a ball to deep centre for a sacrifice fly that made it 5-4.
Varsho then ripped an infield single to put runners on the corners for Kazuma Okamoto, who grounded out to short to end it.