Bounced out of first place, the Yankees try to assess the damage at Toronto and move on

TORONTO Here up north, just about everything went south for the Yankees.Before their quiet caravan left Canada late Thursday night, the Yankees had lost their 82-day grip on first place swept in four games by the Blue Jays, now atop the AL East.Immediately after Torontos latest George Springer-fueled victory, 8-5 at Rogers Centre, manager Aaron Boone felt a need to quickly address his second-place club.I know the trust they have in one another.

We even just talked about it in there, said Boone, after Torontos first home four-game sweep of the Yanks since the Jays entered the AL in 1977.Its all part of it, bring it on.

Youve got to embrace the challenging times of it.Yankees face a tough road ahead Only, this isnt getting any easier for the Yankees whove lost 14 of their last 20 games and face July series against the Mets, Mariners, Cubs and Braves before returning to Toronto for another set.Then, its three games against the Phillies and four against the Rays co-sharers of second place before the July 31 MLB trade deadline.Boones message was that were the best team in the league and we knew we were going to hit a speed bump, said Jazz Chisholm Jr., who said he feels like theres no panic at all.

Were going to be just fine.That best-in-the-league sentiment doesnt change for the Yankees, said captain Aaron Judge.

No matter the record, no matter whats happened.But these Yankees might ultimately regret not taking advantage of a soft June schedule, losing 10 of 16 games against the Red Sox, Angels, Orioles, Reds and Athletics before arriving in Toronto.And talk about regrets...During this four-game sweep, the Yankees came to bat 50 times with runners in scoring position; they batted .180 and left 40 runners on base.Jasson Dominguez had four hits Thursday, including a triple and double, but the one time he batted with runners in scoring position, he struck out - curtailing a seventh-inning rally.

Aaron Judge was intentionally walked five times in four games, an aggressive strategy by Toronto manager John Schneider that contenders might begin to follow.Two of those walks came with a runner at first base and two occurred with no one on base.Waiting on Clarke Schmidt's MRI On the pitching side, Max Fried was the only starter to go six innings, and the Blue Jays feasted on a taxed Yankee bullpen.Twice in this series, Springer hit two homers in a game and collected 11 total RBI.But in a series where Vlad Guerrero Jr.

had one RBI, Bo Bichette (knee) had one at-bat and Anthony Santander (shoulder, IL) had none, the Yankees couldnt stop Addison Barger and Davis Schneider from wrecking games.And they might have lost a key starter, too, as Clarke Schmidt exited after three innings Thursday with right forearm tightness something hes dealt with, on and off, for a month.We understand the focus is on the playoffs and making sure were good down the stretch and not try to push through something and make it worse, said Schmidt, hoping he avoided a worse outcome by exiting when he did.Yankees' immediate task: To remain "unfazed'' Boone said hes looking for his players to be unfazed during this period.I dont want us to flinch, said Boone, asking only to prepare to go out there and compete our (butts) off.

And I know if we do that enough that a positive outcome awaits.Luke Weaver called it true in the big picture, but Ill be very raw and honest that I do feel slightly fazed right now, personally, though not to the point where it impacts his performance.But, yeah, he was shaken by Springer twice taking him deep this week, despite feeling better than he did before a hamstring injury in early June.This is not something you just move on from and sit there and go about your life all happy, said Weaver.

Soak on it a little bit, figure out what you want to do about it and make some action.This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bounced out of first place, the Yankees try to assess the damage at Toronto and move on.

This article has been shared from the original article on yahoo, here is the link to the original article.