McMahon, Rice power Yankees to win over Blue Jays

May 19, 2026; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) celebrates after hitting a two run home run in the fifth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images | Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images Yesterday was such a nailbiter that even though tonight’s game was just about as close, the cadence of the evening felt very different — until it didn’t. Both teams reserved almost all their scoring for the middle innings, with an emphasis on a very stressful “almost.

” The most charitable reading of the ninth inning would be “edge of your seat”, but it ended up thankfully breaking the Yankee way, and they won their second straight in this series, 5-4 your final. Both teams had to be annoyed with missed opportunities in the first. The Jays ended up with men on the corners and just one out before Will Warren was able to get some weak contact and get out of danger.

For their own troubles, the Yankees had multiple men reach in the bottom half, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. ’s strikeout on what should have been ball four had us scoreless after one. Despite both working out of jams, or perhaps fittingly so, neither pitcher looked great, and both were perfectly happy to take their time on the mound.

This was a slowwwww first five innings to get through, with both Warren and Dylan Cease happy to let the pitch clock tick all the way down multiple times an at-bat. Both ended up going five, with Warren having a couple quick innings in the second and third before running into more problems in the fourth, and Cease cruising until he ran into the hulking Ryan McMahon. For Warren, it felt like the Jays had a really good gameplan for him, rather than there being something obviously deficient in his performance.