Yankees swept by Blue Jays, fall out of first place as Clarke Schmidt injured

TORONTO — As if the Yankees did not have enough problems on their hands, Clarke Schmidt walked off the mound after three innings and 55 pitches Thursday and never returned.

The announcement that followed was even more ominous: right forearm tightness.

By the end of the night, the Yankees had lost their fourth straight game, 8-5, to get swept out of Rogers Centre by the now first-place Blue Jays.

The Yankees (48-39) headed back to New York for the Subway Series trailing the Blue Jays (49-38) by a game and tied with the Rays for second place in the AL East after losing for the 14th time in their last 20 games.

But that seemed secondary to the concern for Schmidt, who has dealt with various injuries throughout his career — including Tommy John surgery in 2017 — and now will have to hope that this latest issue does not fully derail what had been an encouraging season to date and make him the third Yankees starter to miss serious time this season.

The 29-year-old right-hander had experienced a slower recovery between starts recently, which led the Yankees to give him an extra day of rest before his last start Saturday.

That was coming off a 103-pitch outing in which Schmidt was working on a no-hitter through seven innings but did not get a chance to finish it off because of a pitch count that matched his career high.

Schmidt’s emergence as a consistent, reliable starter behind Max Fried and Carlos Rodón was critical in a season in which the Yankees will not get a single pitch from Gerrit Cole and likely will not get one from Luis Gil until August.

They also have Ryan Yarbrough, who had pitched well as a fill-in No. 5 starter, on the injured list with an oblique strain that, as of Thursday, had not yet allowed him to resume throwing.

Should Schmidt need to go on the injured list, the Yankees’ in-house options to replace him are not overflowing.

They could technically get into the All-Star break without a fifth starter by taking advantage of Monday’s off day.

Otherwise, they could recall Allan Winans (who got hit around by the Reds in a spot start last week), move JT Brubaker into the rotation (though he is no longer fully built up after spending the last two weeks in the bullpen) or reach into Triple-A for another starter (the closest top pitching prospect is Cam Schlittler, but he only just got promoted there last month).

Then, there also is the question of whether Schmidt’s injury, depending on the severity, will force the Yankees to add another starting pitcher by the July 31 trade deadline.

First, Schmidt is likely headed for testing in the coming days.

There was no obvious sign of discomfort while he was pitching Thursday, though his velocity was a tick down as he gave up three runs, including a two-run homer to George Springer on a 92 mph sinker.

Then, as the Yankees rallied to tie the game at three in the top of the fourth inning against Chris Bassitt, Clayton Beeter began to warm up in the bullpen and entered to pitch the bottom of the frame.

Beeter walked the first batter he faced, then proceeded to untie the game as Nathan Lukes put together a 14-pitch at-bat that ended in a two-run double that gave the Blue Jays a 5-3 lead.

Addison Barger, who enjoyed a monster series, led off the sixth inning with a home run off Beeter that made it 6-3.

The Yankees tried to claw their way back into it against the Blue Jays’ bullpen, scratching a pair of runs across in the seventh inning on an RBI double by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and an RBI groundout from Anthony Volpe.

But the chance to tie the game ended with runners on the corners when pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton grounded out.

The eighth inning was more fitting of how things have gone of late for the Yankees. Aaron Judge was intentionally walked — for the fifth time this series, setting a franchise record — with two outs to bring up Cody Bellinger.

He worked a full count before getting jammed with a sinker that ran in to hit him on the left forearm.

But Bellinger went around on the pitch, so as he stood at the plate in disbelief, catcher Alejandro Kirk retrieved the ball down the third base line and threw to first for the out.

Springer shoved the Yankees out the door in the bottom of the frame by taking Luke Weaver deep for a two-run shot, finishing off his second multi-homer game of the series.