George Springer celebrated his 34th birthday by hitting his 57th career home run as a leadoff hitter and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees 7-1 on Tuesday night.
The Torontonians started the evening with a game lead ahead of the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers in second place among the American drafted teams. The Yankees found themselves six games into this playoff race.
Yusei Kikuchi (10-6) left the game in the sixth inning due to a cramp in the upper left trapezius. He allowed one run and four hits in five innings of work to record his first victory since August 2.
Springer reached the 20-homer plateau for the eighth time in his career when he catapulted an offering from Clarke Schmidt (9-9) into the stands. He also got on the trail thanks to a walk before Bo Bichette hit his first long ball since August 20.
“Happy 34th birthday to Georgie, the young man,” joked Blue Jays manager John Schneider.
Only Rickey Henderson, with 81, had more home runs as a leadoff hitter than Springer, who hit one on his birthday for the first time in his career. He became the 16th Blue Jays player to achieve the feat and the first since Randal Grichuk on August 13, 2019.
“I’m just happy to help the team and my job is to get out on the trails for the guys after me,” Springer said. Hitting a home run is great. It’s not necessarily my goal, but it was important to take the lead and it allowed us to play our way. »
Alejandro Kirk added to the lead with a two-run slap in the ninth inning and Kevin Kiermaier scored on an error by Yankees rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe.
Bichette reached base three times and went to third base following an error by third baseman Oswald Peraza. After the error, Bichette reached home plate to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead when Cavan Biggio’s single fell to center fielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
Bichette has just seven hits in 39 appearances over his last 10 games since coming off the injured list with a quadriceps strain. The shortstop reached the field three times for the second time since his return to play on September 8.
“I just had to find myself and I feel like I’m in a good place right now,” Bichette said.
“It’s a big ask to have a guy come back to the game without rehab and ask him to find the synchronicity of the Majors,” Schneider said. I think if there’s anyone who can do it, it’s Bo. »
Kikuchi was replaced after walking DJ LeMahieu to start the sixth inning. Yimi Garcia forced Giancarlo Stanton into a double play to end the inning.
Trevor Richards and Jordan Hicks were perfect in an inning of relief before seeing their teammate Kirk score his first four goals since July 29.
Gleyber Torres hit a run-scoring double in the first inning to put the Yankees on the scoreboard. The New Yorkers were limited to one point or less for the 27th time this season.
“It wasn’t a very good night at bat for us,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone simply said.
Schmidt allowed four runs and four hits in five innings on the mound.