Frankie Montas ineffective as Yankees fall to Blue Jays

Josh Donaldson turned around a decidedly ornery Yankee Stadium crowd on Wednesday night with a 10th-inning home run to beat the Rays.

Walk-off grand slams will have that effect on a home crowd, no matter how angry it was for much of the preceding three-plus hours.

There was no such reprieve for the Yankees a night later.

With Frankie Montas putting the crowd of 41,419 in a sour mood early and the home club’s offense again doing a nosedive to keep those fans in a state of irritation, the Yankees fell to the Blue Jays, 9-2,  on Thursday night at the Stadium.

The Yankees (73-46), who dropped to 3-12 in their last 15 games and 12-23 in their last 35, saw their AL East lead cut to nine games over the Blue Jays (63-54) and Rays (63-54).

“This is about us playing well. We play well, that takes care of itself,” Aaron Boone said of the division lead being cut to single digits. “Obviously, we haven’t played well enough in the last 10 days . . . we have to play better.”

Making his third start since the Yankees acquired him from Oakland before the Aug. 2 trade deadline, Montas did not impress the home crowd in his Stadium debut, allowing  six runs and eight hits in six innings. He gave up five runs in the second inning — as he did in a loss in St. Louis — and has allowed 14 runs in 14 innings in three starts.

“The second inning, I was missing my spots,” Montas said. “They’re a really good team, and when you miss spots against] a really good team, you’re going to pay the price.”

Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios (9-5, 5.39), in control throughout, allowed two runs (one earned) and six hits in 6 2⁄3 innings in which he walked one and struck out nine.

“It just seemed like he didn’t make a lot of mistakes over the middle,” Andrew Benintendi said. The Yankees went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position with eight stranded.

The Blue Jays, who got a 5-for-5 night from leadoff man George Springer, broke it open in the second. Teoscar Hernandez led off with a single and one out later, Matt Chapman doubled to left. Santiago Espinal grounded to short, which brought in Hernandez for a 1-0 lead. Montas walked Whit Merrifield and Springer followed with a bloop RBI single to center.  Vlad Guerrero Jr. roped a 96-mph fastball into the rightfield seats, just over Aaron Judge's leap, for his 26th homer and a 5-0 lead. Guerrero has 13 career homers against the Yankees, with 10 of those coming at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees got two runs back in the third when Berrios committed a throwing error and Judge delivered an RBI groundout to make it 5-2.

Springer led off the fifth with a soft single and went to third on a one-out single to right by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Alejandro Kirk rifled a first-pitch splitter into the corner in left for an RBI double that made it 6-2.

Albert Abreu took over for Montas in the seventh and allowed Springer’s fourth hit. Guerrero hit a grounder to third that  should have resulted in a 5-4-3 double play, but second baseman DJ LeMahieu failed to handle Donaldson’s throw, giving the Blue Jays runners at second and third. Gurriel walked and Kirk’s sacrifice fly made it 7-2. Hernandez added a two-run double into the gap in left-center.

“It’s about us handling our business,” Boone said. “If we do that and play the game we’re capable of playing the rest of the way, we’ll be in good shape. But we’ve got to do that.”