Yankees head back to Toronto looking to erase last years nightmare
TORONTO — Welcome back to the Yankees’ house of horrors.For the first time since Game 2 of the ALDS last October, the Yankees will return to Rogers Centre on Friday night, hoping to exorcise the demons that followed them across nine games there last year and ultimately sunk their season.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.
The Yankees have already seen the Blue Jays this year, splitting a four-game series with them last month in The Bronx, and lead them by nine games in the division (while remaining in a virtual tie with the Rays for first place).And while there is nothing the Yankees can do this weekend that would completely erase the stench of what happened to them last year in Canada, they at least have a chance to not give the Blue Jays any life, like they did a season ago.“Playing in Toronto obviously can be a different animal,” Carlos Rodón said after the Yankees finished off a sweep of the Guardians on Wednesday.“It’s a fun place to play, but they play well there.
We’re excited to go in and give it our best go.”When the Yankees arrived north of the border for the first time last season, on June 30, they led the AL East by 1 1/2 games.By the time they got through customs on their way back to New York, after getting swept in four games, they had lost the division lead and never got it back the rest of the season, with the series proving to be a turning point in the Blue Jays’ season instead.In seven regular-season games at Rogers Centre last season — two series within just over three weeks during their worst stretch of the season — the Yankees went 1-6.
They were outscored 52-33 and committed 11 errors in seven games (compared to 83 in their other 152 games of the regular season).Then in the ALDS, with the Blue Jays having earned home-field advantage after winning the regular-season series 8-5, they boat-raced the Yankees in Games 1...