Suffering a 5-4 loss to the New York Yankees last night, the Blue Jays were handed their first loss of the second half of the 2025 season. They also had their 11-game home winning streak snapped, a stretch that dates back to a late-June series against the White Sox. Fortunately, this is why they play 162 games, and the Blue Jays have a chance tonight to win this series and the season series against the Yankees.

Although their record would suggest otherwise, the Blue Jays are 6-7 this year in rubber matches of three-game series. One of those losses came against the Yankees back on April 27th in the second half of a double header in the Bronx.

Now, one full turn through the rotation after the break, Toronto turns to Chris Bassitt for his 21st start of the season. Bassitt most recently pitched last Friday at home against the San Francisco Giants, tossing 6 1/3 scoreless frames and allowing 10 hits, five strikeouts, no walks, and two ground ball double plays. That performance brought Bassitt’s season ERA and WHIP down to 3.89 and 1.36, respectively. He’s also working on a 5.9% walk rate on the season, a mark that would serve as the lowest of his career should he maintain that the rest of the way.

This will be Bassitt’s third time facing the Yankees this season and the seventh time since becoming a member of the Blue Jays. He’s allowed seven earned runs with fourteen strikeouts over 11 1/3 innings between his first two starts against them this season, with one of those runs being the first and only home run allowed to Aaron Judge in his career.

The Yankees appear to have cracked the code on getting Bassitt; prior to this season, Bassitt made four starts against the Yankees while with the Blue Jays, allowing just one earned run, 18 hits, and six walks over 27 innings. Paul Goldschmidt has four hits in nine career at-bats against Bassitt, and Jasson Domínguez has five hits in six at-bats against him.

Opposing Bassitt will be lefty Max Fried, whose status for this game was up in the air after developing a finger blister during his last start against the Cubs. It kept Fried out of the All-Star game, but he told reporters over the break that it was progressing well, ultimately leading to being pencilled into tonight’s series finale. Fried has emerged as a Cy Young candidate this season, posting an AL-best 11 wins with a 2.43 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 8.3 K/9, and 2.0 BB/9.

He has put up great numbers against the Blue Jays throughout his career, but the Blue Jays tagged him for four earned runs back on Canada Day thanks to home runs from George Springer and Andrés Giménez. Although the latter is unfortunately on the Injured List, the Blue Jays may be catching Fried at the right time. He had just two outings through the end of June in which he allowed more than two earned runs, but since the calendar flipped to July, all three of his starts have featured three or four earned runs.

For the first time this season, Davis Schneider will hit leadoff for the Blue Jays tonight. It won’t be completely foreign territory for Schneider as he has started at the leadoff spot 28 times over the previous two seasons. Since he was recalled from triple-A on June 1st, Schneider is slashing .258/.380/.530 with a .910 OPS, five homers, and 11 RBIs.

Elsewhere in the lineup, Alejandro Kirk is in line to catch all three games of this series, and Addison Barger gets the nod even with a lefty on the mound.

Location: Rogers Centre – Toronto, Ontario

First Pitch: 7:07 PM EST

Watch/Listen: Sportsnet, Amazon Prime Video, TVA Sports / Sportsnet 590 The Fan

Toronto Blue Jays – Chris Bassitt: 10-4 record, 3.89 ERA, 113 1/3 IP, 109 SO, 29 BB

New York Yankees – Max Fried: 11-3 record, 2.43 ERA, 122 IP, 113 SO, 27 BB