NEW YORK — Oswaldo Cabrera drifted back to the warning track in right field, was stopped by the wall, then jumped straight up to rob the Blue Jays' Lourdes Gurriel Jr. of a home run on the first pitch of Friday night's game.
That was about as good as it got for the slumping Yankees.
The sellout crowd of 46,194 at Yankee Stadium erupted. Cabrera provided them another jolt with a half-flex after the catch as he wore a look of unadulterated joy on his face. Aaron Judge charged over from center to congratulate the energetic rookie.
It all seemed to portend a pleasant night at the ballpark for the home team and its crowd.
Not quite.
The Cabrera catch turned out to be pretty much the only highlight for the Yankees, whose offense slumbered again throughout a 4-0 loss to the Blue Jays.
The Yankees, shut out for the fifth time in their last 13 games and held to two or fewer runs for the eighth time in that span, were outhit 8-4. They got one runner as far as second base, and that was in the first inning.
The Yankees (73-47), 3-13 in their last 16 games and 12-24 in their last 36, saw their AL East lead trimmed to eight games, the lowest it has been since a 7 1/2 -game cushion on June 10. It had reached 15 1/2 games on July 8.
They remained 3 1/2 games behind the Astros, whom they led by nine games on June 18, in the battle for the American League's best record.
Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman (9-9, 2.99) was brilliant, allowing four hits and one walk in seven innings in which he struck out seven.
Jameson Taillon, though not as bad as he’s been of late, wasn’t good enough, allowing three runs and six hits in five innings-plus. Some tremendous work by Lou Trivino in the sixth — he came on with runners at the corners and none out and escaped the jam — kept Taillon’s line from being far worse.
Teoscar Hernandez's two-run homer in the fourth gave the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead.
The loudest cheers of the night came on the highlight-reel catch by Cabrera, who became the first player in franchise history to start at three different positions in his first three games (the natural infielder played third base in his MLB debut Wednesday and shortstop on Thursday). But for the Yankees, it was all downhill after that.
Aaron Judge went 0 for 2 with a walk and a catcher's interference, dropping him to 2 for 23 in the last seven games. Aroldis Chapman struggled again, allowing a one-out single in the ninth, throwing a wild pitch and issuing two walks on nine pitches before being replaced by Ron Marinaccio, who gave up a sacrifice fly by Danny Jansen.
Whit Merrifield led off the third with a single and Cavan Biggio sent a bullet double to right that Cabrera had no chance to catch. Taillon struck out Jansen swinging at a curveball for the first out, but with the infield back, Gurriel’s groundout to short gave the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead.
Alejandro Kirk led off the fourth with a single and Hernandez drove a first-pitch fastball to left-center for his 18th homer and a three-run lead. Of Taillon’s 20 homers allowed this season, 12 have come in his last nine starts.
Through four innings, Gausman had allowed one hit — a single by Josh Donaldson with two outs in the first — and struck out six. His streak of consecutive batters retired ended when Gleyber Torres led off the fifth with a single. Isiah Kiner-Falefa then grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, which elicited the first loud boos of the night.
They were far from the last.
