The Yankees were three outs away from improving to 16-10 with a 2-1 victory over the rival Blue Jays. In most situations, sending a guy with a sub-2 ERA since 2020 would be almost lights-out.

Unfortunately, Devin Williams’ first month in pinstripes has continued to evolve into a nightmare. A brutal ninth inning, which saw a single, a two-strike hit-by-pitch, and a long two-run double, blew the game, as the Yankees fell to the Blue Jays, 4-2, with boos raining down on Williams.

Back in the more peaceful beginning of the ballgame, Carlos Carrasco gave up a leadoff single to Bo Bichette in the first, but rebounded to strike out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and get Anthony Santander to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play. José Berríos responded with an efficient inning of his own, mowing down the Yankees’ top of the order.

Neither team got a runner in scoring position until Austin Wells and Oswaldo Cabrera knocked back-to-back singles with one out in the third, putting runners on the corners. Unfortunately, the ol’ “run on contact” play burned the Yankees again as Wells got thrown out at the plate on a slow chopper from Grisham. A Judge groundout ended the threat.

Cookie tried to get himself in trouble as the lineup flipped over in the fourth with a pair of walks, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. made a spectacular diving play to get the first out to prevent a big jam:

Both teams continued to strand runners, as each left two aboard in the fourth and stranded a runner on second in the fifth.

Carlos Carrasco exited after five innings despite throwing only 67 pitches. After entering play with an ERA over 6 and tremendous struggles after the first time through, the five shutout frames he tossed represented his best outing as a Yankee. It’s a low bar, but for a tenuous fifth starter, the Yanks happily took what Cookie gave them without pushing it.

Unfortunately, Vladdy did what he always does against the Yankees, blasting a Tim Hill sinker into the visiting bullpen to lead off the sixth. Just like that, it was 1-0, Toronto.

It’s Guerrero’s 21st career home run against the Yankees. Only Rafael Devers (24) has hit more home runs against the Yankees since Guerrero’s debut in 2019.

Cody Bellinger walked with one out in the bottom of the sixth to chase Berríos, but he ran on Brendon Little’s first pitch and got gunned down by Alejandro Kirk. Berríos finished with 5.1 shutout innings, his second best outing of the season. After Jazz singled up the middle, he too tried to run and got thrown out as well.

So, for those keeping score, the Yankees had three batters in the inning and two reached base. Only other way that’s possible is a triple play. Where’s Chris Gittens?

After the seventh-inning stretch, Anthony Volpe snapped his prolonged drought with a double to right field. After a long fly ball by Wells got him to third, Oswaldo Cabrera came up with the infield in and one out. Not wanting to leave it to fate on a likely “run on contact” play, he shot it through the left side for a 104.1-mph single to tie the game at one.

Judge worked a walk later in the inning to set up Ben Rice in a big spot against Yimi García, but he flew out to right.

Nathan Lukes got his second hit of the game to lead off the eighth against Fernando Cruz, continuing the weird trend of No. 9 hitters dominating the Yankees. After that, Bo Bichette hit a looper that was an easy force play for Chisholm, but he strangely decided to throw to first despite having the lead runner out to try, continuing a really odd game for him. Fortunately for Jazz, Cruz got a pair of bad swings from Guerrero and Santander, getting out of the inning on a groundout and flyout.

Aggressive managing by John Schneider backfired in the eighth, as Mason Fluharty came in and gave up a leadoff hustle double by Bellinger that set the tone for the inning. After a walk by Chisholm and an 0-2 plunking of Volpe, the Yankees’ backstop continued his good day at the plate by getting just enough of a 2-0 cutter to score Bellinger on a sac fly.

That swing made it 2-1 Yankees after eight, as they handed the ball to Devin Williams for the save. New York struggled with runners on base all night and went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Not giving more insurance for their struggling closer was a mistake.

Williams entered and immediately fell behind George Springer, who lofted a leadoff single to left field on 3-1. After getting it to 2-2 against Andrés Gimenéz, Williams hit him on the knee with a bad fastball. Uh oh.

Desperately needing to get ahead of Kirk, Williams threw a bad 1-0 changeup and saw it get blasted 387 feet for a go-ahead two-run double.

A chorus of boos echoed through Yankee Stadium as Mark Leiter Jr. tried to stop the bleeding. After allowing a bloop single to Addison Barger, he got the next three outs, but not before the Blue Jays went up 4-2.

A two-out double by Rice off of Jeff Hoffman briefly gave the Yankees life, but Paul Goldschmidt popped out to end the game.

Big discussions will need to be held behind the scenes, as Williams’ ERA ballooned to 11.25 and his nightmare April continued. With last year’s playoff closer, Luke Weaver, still in the bullpen, manager Aaron Boone will have to at least consider mixing things up, and it does feel at least possible given his postgame comments.

The Yankees will have to even things up in the series tomorrow, even if their closer situation remains unresolved. It will be a battle of the aces, with Max Fried squaring off with Kevin Gausman at 1:05pm EST.