Yankees pound 18 hits, get key three-run homer by Juan Soto in rout of Blue Jays

TORONTO — It was the kind of inning so prevalent the first two months of the season for the Yankees and so sorely lacking for much of the last month.

They limped into the sixth inning Friday night against cruising Blue Jays lefthander Yusei Kikuchi, appearing well on their way to a fifth straight loss and their 10th in the last 12 games.

Until . . .

No. 9 hitter Jahmai Jones led off with a single and Anthony Volpe bunted for a hit. Then Juan Soto swung at a 3-and-0 pitch and lined one off the facing of the second deck in right.

That energized what had been a mostly morose Yankees dugout and turned a two-run deficit into a one-run lead. The floodgates had opened for a six-run inning and the Yankees added a seven-run ninth, pounding 18 hits in a 16-5 victory in front of 34,791 at Rogers Centre.

Aaron Judge and Jahmai Jones each had three hits and Soto, Anthony Volpe, Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo had two each. DJ LeMahieu picked up his first extra-base hit of the season in his 89th plate appearance.

Soto’s 20th homer gave the Yankees (53-31) a 4-3 lead, remarkably their first lead in 42 innings. “A 100% I’m swinging,’’ he said. “Against a guy like that, who has nasty pitches, knowing that he’s going to try to get one right there, definitely I was aggressive.”

J.D. Davis added an RBI double in the sixth, his first hit as a Yankee in three games. Torres, benched the previous two games, followed Davis’ double with a two-run homer that made it 7-3.

That six-run rally came moments after the Blue Jays had scored twice to take a 3-1 lead. Michael Tonkin, who took over for Marcus Stroman with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth, hit George Springer to give Toronto the two-run lead. It could have become 4-1, but when Tonkin threw an apparent wild pitch, Jose Trevino quickly retrieved the ball and dived into home plate to tag Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the second out, limiting the damage and changing the momentum a bit.

Stroman

seemed upset with second baseman Torres when Guerrero beat out a potential double-play ball in the fifth and was seen by cameras screaming in the dugout and pounding his glove shortly after being removed.

“It was frustrating,’’ Stroman said. “At the end of the day, I felt like I made a good pitch and that was a big spot, I wanted to have that turn there and we didn’t and some raw emotion comes out.”

Stroman, who was the first out of the dugout to greet Torres after his homer, added: “I talked to Gleyber right after. I’m someone who’s there for each and every guy. In the moment, obviously, it’s frustrating, but nothing more I love than to see my guys winning, see my guys having big plays and swinging the bat. We’re all very passionate about what we do, we all work extremely hard. It gets frustrating at times and sometimes raw emotion comes out.”

Said Torres: : “That type of situation, when you’re just trying to help your team and pitching well, emotions come out. I don’t have any issues with that. I know how hard the game is, so I think that’s part of the game [and] when you have the type of relationship with your teammates, it’s never [a problem].”

Tonkin gave up a homer by former Yankee Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the sixth and Luke Weaver allowed a homer by Guerrero in the seventh that made it 7-5, but Verdugo and LeMahieu had RBI doubles in the eighth to give the Yankees a 9-5 lead.

Judge’s two-run single in the ninth off lefty Tim Mayza — who surrendered the 2022 American League MVP’s 61st homer that season in this ballpark — made it 11-5. Oswaldo Cabrera added an RBI double, Verdugo had an RBI single, Trevino doubled home a run and Jones capped the rally with an RBI single.

“This lineup is so potent, it’s impossible to keep down for too long,’’ Stroman said. “We play 162 games, there’s going to be ups and downs. It’s impossible to play extremely well for all 162, so we’ve just been a little passive and in a little bit of a lull this last week, two weeks. It’s very easy to fall into when you’re playing 162 games, so just good to see them break out. That’s what we’ve been seeing all year and we know the potential of this lineup, so definitely awesome to see the boys do that.”

It was the ninth straight game in which the Yankees yielded the first run in a game, and they allowed at least one run in the first inning of seven of those games, including Friday.

The Blue Jays forced Stroman to throw 28 pitches in the first inning a night after Carlos Rodon needed 39 pitches to get through a five-run first in a 9-2 loss.

With two outs and a man on first, Justin Turner singled hard to right and Springer, fresh off hitting two three-run homers the night before, smashed a ground-ball single to left for a 1-0 lead. (Springer left the game with a left hand contusion after being hit by Tonkin’s pitch in the fifth.)

Soto walked with one out in the fourth and Judge singled, and when Davis grounded to second, Judge made a heads-up play by not running into the tag and getting in a rundown. That allowed Soto to beat the throw home and tie it at 1-1.

Said Aaron Boone, “No doubt it feels good to break out like that and to have a game like that where you kind of run away. That always feels good. Honestly, I feel like these guys have been in a good place and understanding it was just a little place and time that was a tough go. But it’s a confident and focused group . . . an outstanding night. Hopefully we can carry it into tomorrow.”