Yankees' late-inning disasters have kept AL East door open for Blue Jays

It has been a frustrating few days for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Toronto Blue Jays are heading into Thursday night's game against the Los Angeles Angels on a four-game losing streak that could realistically be a seven-game winning streak if not for some late-game errors. Three of the Blue Jays' four losses have been in their opponent's final at-bat, which has added some extra sting.

On Saturday, the Blue Jays had Cleveland down to their final strike before Daniel Schneemann crushed a ninth inning grand slam in a 5-3 Guardians win.

A day later, the Blue Jays had a chance to win in the ninth but couldn’t bring the tying run across the plate against Emmanuel Clase.

That's set up their series against the Angels, who have scored nine runs in the eighth and ninth innings across the first two game of the series in come-from-behidn wins.

Even with all that, the Blue Jays are only 4 1/2 games behind of the division-leading Yankees, who have a record of 21-16. The Yankees have scored the most runs in the American League (206), which is also the second-highest total in baseball. New York also has a run differential of +61, compared to the Blue Jays who are -39.

If both teams were playing to their Pythagorean win-loss projections, the Yankees should have three more wins while the Blue Jays should be 14-22 and 10 games behind the Yankees.

Yankees' late-inning disasters have kept AL East door open for Blue Jays

Toronto should be grateful that the Yankees have left a few wins on the table this season thanks to their bullpen struggles. The Yankees are 4-8 in one-run games but 7-2 in blowouts, indicating their struggles in high-pressure situations, late in the game.

New York's late-game struggles start with closer Devin Williams, who the team acquired in a trade with the Brewers in the offseason. He hasn't lived up to expectations so far.

Williams was lights out in Milwaukee's bullpen from 2019-2024. He was worth 8.9 bWAR during that time and allowed just 15 home runs in 235 2/3 innings pitched.

But then he got to New York and couldn't fool anyone. Opponents hit .343/.455/.457 off him across his first eight games of the season and he allowed 10 earned runs. He had been better in his five appearances since losing the closer's job on April 27, but still allowed three runs in 2/3 of an inning against the Padres on Monday.

While he tossed a scoreless inning on Wednesday, he still has an unsightly 9.24 ERA on the season.

That was the latest in a long line of games where the Yankees faltered late. The Yankees lost two of three to the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend, with the Rays scoring two runs in the eighth off Mark Leiter Jr. on Saturday. Prior to that, the back of the Yankees bullpen game up another game on April 25 when the Blue Jays to rally for three runs in the ninth against Williams and Leiter.

On April 19, the Rays scored four runs to tie the game in the ninth, and two more in the tenth to beat the Yankees 10-8. Williams couldn’t hold the fort, and Yoendrys Gómez allowed the extra-innings walk-off home run to Jonathan Aranda.

While the Yankees bullpen has solid numbers, they've been giving up runs at the worst time. Every Yankees reliever outside of Williams and Tyler Matzek have ERAs under four and are doing a good job limiting baserunners.

That unit has also combined to hold opponents to a .189/.285/.270 slash line in the seventh inning or later and has only given up 45 runs in those innings (the ninth-best mark in baseball). The problem is that when they're allowing runs at the worst time.

The Blue Jays, who are having bullpen issues of their own, need to get hot before the Yankees turn things around. Otherwise it could be a long summer in Toronto.