TORONTO — Two areas of Yankees strength are the reasons they are limping into the home opener Monday.
Throughout spring training, the Florida air was filled with talk about how deep the Yankees’ bullpen was and how powerful the middle of the lineup was going to be.
After Sunday’s heartbreaking, 7-4 loss to the Blue Jays in front of 29,091 at Rogers Centre, which turned on Justin Smoak’s grand slam in the eighth, the bullpen is taking on water and Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez are swinging wet newspapers.
First it was Tommy Kahnle giving up a two-run homer to Smoak in the seventh that cut the Yankees’ lead to 4-3.