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Blue Jays Gameday (May 18): Toronto returns to the Bronx to face the Yankees
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Photo credit: © Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Tristan Morgan
May 18, 2026, 18:40 EDT
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It’s been 222 days since the Toronto Blue Jays popped champagne in the opposing clubhouse at Yankee Stadium and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. bellowed out  “daaa Yankees lose” through the building, and now they’re back. 
Fresh off taking two of three from a hurting Detroit Tigers team and finally snapping Vladimir Guerrero Jr.‘s slump in the finale, the Toronto Blue Jays make their first trip to Yankee Stadium since last October after clinching the ALDS. The circumstances couldn’t be more different now.
Toronto scuffles into the Bronx at 21-25, carrying an 8-14 road record and a roster riddled with injuries. The New York Yankees, sitting at 28-19, own a 14-6 home record and a pitching staff with a collective 3.31 ERA that leads the American League. This is not a series the Blue Jays were supposed to be playing as underdogs.
Still, the timing isn’t all bad. The Yankees just got run out of Queens, dropping back-to-back games to the Mets to lose the Subway Series and their third straight series overall. Adding to their woes is the Rays’ continued success, which leaves them three games back in the division. Toronto’s 11-6 record against New York last year, including the playoffs, shouldn’t be forgotten either. Now seems like a less-than-ideal time for the Yankees to face a team that was a true nemesis for them in 2025.
On the mound tonight, Patrick Corbin gets the call for Toronto. Say what you will about the optics of trotting out a 36-year-old who was signed in desperation when the rotation fell apart, but Corbin has genuinely earned his keep. In his last three starts, he’s allowed just four earned runs and posted a 2.35 ERA across 15.1 innings. His xERA of 6.10 suggests some luck has been on his side recently, but Corbin has been doing the things a back-end starter needs to do, limiting free passes and avoiding hard contact effectively.
The matchup that matters most for Corbin tonight is Cody Bellinger, who has absolutely owned him over the course of his career, going 10-for-24 (.417) against the lefthander. Keeping Bellinger off the bases (and preferably out of the short porch in right field) will be the key task today. Corbin’s slider remains a legitimate weapon, and if he can lean on it in key spots, there’s a path to a quality outing. Most of all, though, the defence has to be on its A-game for Corbin to be competitive in this one.
Across the diamond, the Blue Jays will see Ryan Weathers, who has built himself into one of the more reliable lefties in the American League this season.
The southpaw has allowed two earned runs or fewer in his past four starts, posting a 1.88 ERA in that stretch. The swing-and-miss is absolutely there too, with a near 30% strikeout rate and a strong 7.2% walk rate. However, his Achilles heel has been his most-used pitch this season, the four-seam fastball. His heater sits at a respectable 95-plus mph, but it carries a .290 xAVG and a 11.5% barrel rate that ranks among the highest in the American League.
That’s exactly where Vladimir Guerrero Jr. comes in. He was something else yesterday in Detroit, hitting in the two hole, where he slots in again tonight. After homering and scoring twice in the Blue Jays’ 4-1 win over the Tigers, the choice to have him bat second again was an obvious one after it marked the end of a 0-for-22 stretch that had the entire city holding its breath. Guerrero Jr. enters this one owning a .308 career batting average at Yankee Stadium with a 1.002 OPS, and with Weathers leaning on that volatile fastball 34% of the time, his .357 average and .536 slugging percentage this year against heaters give Toronto its best built-in matchup of the night. If “The King of New York” is truly back, this is the stage to prove it.
Daulton Varsho has also been the stabilizer this offence needed, settling into a nice groove with a .343 average over his last 10 games — capped off with two more extra-base hits on Sunday. For the Blue Jays to succeed, they need players to stabilize the lineup’s core and protect Guerrero Jr., creating a mutually beneficial hitting environment, where the opponent is forced to pitch to one of the other. Varsho has been one of those stabilizers lately, and the short porch in right field must look very enticing for him tonight, even facing a lefty.
The Blue Jays’ bullpen appears to be in good shape for tonight’s matchup, with the expected exception of Spencer Miles, who gets a well-deserved night off after throwing 56 pitches over the last three days. The Yankees’ bullpen, meanwhile, enters the series in far worse shape, having used six arms yesterday alone before the Mets sent them packing.
Worth highlighting on the Yankees’ side: both Jazz Chisholm and Paul Goldschmidt have been raking lately, with Goldschmidt carrying a .400 average over his last 10 games and a .323 career average against southpaws. Corbin cannot afford to let anything linger in the middle of the order; his strategy to pitch-to-contact has its risks in this ballpark, especially against one of the best lineups in MLB.
The bottom line is the Blue Jays need to keep winning. The momentum appears to be picking up, and the snowball only needs to grow bigger. This was around the time last year when the tide began to shift for this club, and in perhaps the biggest game of the 2026 season to date, this first of four in the Bronx sets the tone for everything that follows.
Location: New York City, NY (Yankee Stadium)
First Pitch: 7:05 PM ET
Watch/Listen: Sportsnet One, SN590

Starting Pitchers

Toronto Blue Jays – Patrick Corbin: 1-1, 3.93 ERA, 34.1 IP, 22 SO, 1.40 WHIP
New York Yankees – Ryan Weathers: 2-2, 3.00 ERA, 45 IP, 54 SO, 1.11 WHIP

Lineups:

Blue Jays:
1.George Springer – DH
2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – 1B
3. Kazuma Okamoto – 3B
4.Lenyn Sosa – 2B
5. Daulton Varsho – CF
6. Ernie Clement – SS
7. Myles Straw – RF
8.Brandon Valenzuela – C
9. Davis Schneider – LF
Yankees:
1.Paul Goldschmidt – 1B
2.Ben Rice – DH
3. Aaron Judge – RF
4. Cody Bellinger – CF
5. Amed Rosario – 3B
6. Jazz Chisholm Jr. – 2B
7. Anthony Volpe – SS
8. Mark Schuemann – LF
9.J.C. Escarra – C

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