1. The last time Dylan Cease took the mound at Yankee Stadium (May 7, 2025) he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He wasn’t quite as good through the first three innings of Tuesday’s game, but he was still very good, allowing just a broken-bat single to Trent Grisham and a walk to Cody Bellinger. When the Blue Jays scored three runs on four singles and a walk against Will Warren in the fourth inning, it seemed like the Yankees would be destined for another loss.
2. They weren’t. Cease completely unraveled in the fourth inning. He thought he had Aaron Judge struck out to begin the inning, but Judge challenged a 3-2 strike call and started walking to first base before home plate umpire John Tumpane could even announce the challenge. Judge was right and took first base. After a Bellinger flyout, Cease walked Jazz Chisholm. Cease had only walked four batters total over his last three starts and had walked three Yankees in 3 1/3 innings. Trying to rediscover the zone he threw a first-pitch fastball over the plate to Ryan McMahon, and while McMahon has swung through most fastballs thrown over the plate this season, he crushed this over the left-field wall for a game-tying, three-run home run. The next inning, with the game tied at 3, Grisham walked with one out and Ben Rice hit a two-run home run to right field to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead.
“It’s starting to get to the point where you just kind of expect it from Benny,” McMahon said of Rice. “He’s been locked in. He’s an awesome player, and he’s come through for us big time.”
3. With David Bednar and Fernando Cruz unavailable due to recent workloads, the Yankees would have to somehow get 12 outs, while protecting a two-run lead. After blowing a two-run lead nearly every game for the last week and a half, it would be a wild ride to the 27th out.
Tim Hill pitched around a two-out walk in the sixth. Jake Bird and Brent Headrick got through a two-baserunner seventh and Headrick pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. The Yankees were unable to tack on in the sixth, seventh and eighth, and when Camilo Doval emerged from the bullpen to protect a two-run lead in the ninth, I knew nothing good would happen.
4. Before you could blink, Doval walked the light-hitting Andres Gimenez to begin the ninth. (It was Gimenez’s fifth walk in 165 plate appearances this season.) Ernie Clement singled to right and in 15 seconds the Blue Jays had the tying runs on base with no outs. George Springer rocked a line drive up the middle that Doval was able to knock down for an out. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4 and Daulton Varsho singled to move the tying run to third with two outs and then stole second to put the go-ahead run on second. Somehow, Doval was able to get Kazuma Okamoto to ground out to end the game.
5. Doval could not give up an earned run for the rest of the regular season and I wouldn’t trust him for a second in a postseason game. I will never trust him. I don’t trust anyone who throws 102 mph and has no idea where the ball is going. Look at Doval’s delivery: When he releases the ball he’s not looking at the plate. He’s somewhat looking down and somewhat looking toward the on-deck circle and first-base dugout. The ball does not end up where the catcher sets up, and if it does, it’s not on purpose. When you throw a 103-mph cut fastball and a 91-mph slider and can’t strike anyone out, you know you don’t know where the ball is going and you know you can’t be trusted.
6. “Camilo bent, but he didn’t break,” Aaron Boone said. “To go through the heart of the order there to finish it off, I love that poise.”
What poise? Doval allowed two hits, a walk, an earned run, forgot to cover first base on a ground ball to the right side and had the tying run on third base and the go-ahead run on second base when the game ended. That’s poise?
7. The Yankees are going to lose a lot of games waiting for the trade deadline to improve their bullpen. It’s a strategy that cost them last year as well. There have to be internal options that are better than the options they currently roster. Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough are repetitive as long men who aren’t trusted in high-leverage situations. (Repetitive like having two left-handed catchers, both of whom can’t hit.) Doval can’t be trusted in any situation. Two of those three (if not all three) can be replaced. The problem is they are making a combined $10.6 million and owed money is always the No. 1 determiner in roster spots.
8. Warren was OK: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K. Five of the seven baserunners against him came in one inning and that can’t happen. He can’t have these one-inning meltdowns and be great in all other innings. The Yankees need him to be more consistent and more economical. He forced the bullpen to get another 12 outs, and through 10 starts, he has failed to go five innings four times and has made it through six innings just three times.
9. Headrick will likely be unavailable on Wednesday. I would make Bednar unavailable again even if that means a cloudier path to 27 outs than the one on Tuesday night. Cam Schlittler better bring his best stuff to the mound on Wednesday and put up zeros, like seven or eight of them.
10. Schlittler will be going against Trey Yesavage who embarrassed the Yankees the last time he faced them in Game 2 of the ALDS. Yesavage has been very good (1.40 ERA) in four starts this season, but nothing like what he was in that game against the Yankees in October. Aaron Judge has one home run and a .699 OPS in the last 12 games. (A big reason why the Yankees went 5-7 in those games.) If there was ever a time for Judge to break out of this power slump, hitting a multi-run home run off Yesavage would be as good a time as any.
Last modified: May 20, 2026
