On a night that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. reiterated he will never wear pinstripes, the Yankees’ lineup looked particularly in need of his bat.
The Yankees do not have the Blue Jays star, Giancarlo Stanton or anyone who is doing much hitting right now.
The Yankees managed one meaningful swing, just five hits and no runs past the second inning in a 6-1, series-opening loss to the Blue Jays on Friday in front of 39,025 in The Bronx.
The Yankees (12-8) trailed by two runs three batters into the game, and the Blue Jays (12-8) never looked back in the first matchup of the season between the AL East rivals.
Guerrero — the superstar who, shortly before first pitch, stated for a second time that he would never play for the Yankees for “personal” reasons — sure likes hitting at the Stadium regardless.
The slugger blasted his 11th home run in his 32nd career game in The Bronx, giving the Blue Jays an instant 2-0 lead that would never be threatened.
Through the first 19 games of the season, the Yankees fielded essentially a league-average offense, scoring the 15th-most runs in baseball.
The bats would have loved to be average during Game 20.
The Yankees had two hits after the second inning, the first a fifth-inning single from Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
The next batter, Anthony Volpe, grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The second was a ninth-inning single from Aaron Judge, who was erased by a double play from Gleyber Torres.
Yusei Kikuchi and three Blue Jays relievers shut down an offense that, apart from Thursday’s nine-run outburst against the Angels, has been quiet.
By the end of the night, the only player in the Yankees’ lineup with an average above .272 was Anthony Rizzo.
Since Stanton sustained a hamstring injury Saturday that is expected to keep the slugger out for about a month and a half, the Yankees have scored fewer than four runs in four of five games.
The Yankees’ only run Friday arrived in the second, when Oswaldo Cabrera drilled an outside fastball over the right-field wall to bring the Yankees within one.
It was Cabrera’s first homer of the season and a sign of hope: Entering play, Cabrera was 6-for-38 (.158) in his past 10 games.
The blast would be the loudest The Bronx crowd got until the top of the ninth inning, when a frustrating night got chippy.
Greg Weissert hit Guerrero in the left elbow, prompting Guerrero to stare at Weissert and take off his equipment slowly at the plate.
He took his time walking to first base, and Rizzo walked toward Guerrero.
The two exchanged words as Rizzo pointed to first base, appearing to tell him to get there already.
The situation did not escalate, but it represented the most excitement of the evening.
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Domingo German pitched better than his line (six innings with four runs allowed on four hits and two walks) but was burned by two misses.
His first, to Guerrero, was a straight-down-the-pipe curveball that was blistered a projected 417 feet to left-center.
German settled down from there and retired 12 straight Blue Jays until walking Matt Chapman in the sixth inning.
Two batters later German made his second mistake, a middle-of-the-plate four-seamer that Brandon Belt hammered into the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center for his first home run of the season.
Belt entered play hitting .154, but the 35-year-old sure looked like the former Giants standout.
He stepped into an eighth-inning sinker from Albert Abreu and hammered it to right for a two-run double that Judge could not hold onto, the Blue Jays blowing open the game.
The way the Yankees are swinging, the runs were not needed.
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