Michael Kay Gets Roasted As Juan Soto, Mets Extend Yankees' Losing Streak

Things are not going well for the New York Yankees. And even members of their announcing crew are taking shots from opposing organizations.

On his radio show earlier this week, Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay pointed out that the Toronto Blue Jays had significantly outperformed their run differential this season. Even after a lengthy hot streak from Toronto, the Blue Jays had just crept over zero, with a +4 run differential. Generally, that would indicate their "expected" record would be around .500. Instead, they'd crawled their way back into the AL East division race. 

"The Blue Jays are not a first-place team, I’m sorry," Kay said. "If you look at the run differential, the Yankees’ run differential is +105. The Blue Jays, after a 12-5 win, finally got in the positive yesterday; they’re +4. Do you realize they should be a .500 team because of a +4 run differential?

"And the Yankees should have at least four or five more wins with a +105 run differential. They’re not playing great baseball. I’m sorry, they’re not."

Well, sure enough, the Blue Jays finished off a four-game sweep of the Yankees on Thursday, moving into first place all by themselves. And the Blue Jays television crew wasn't about to forget what Kay said.

"I can think of a certain Yankee broadcaster, in fact, who is gonna have to go on his show [Friday] and admit that the Blue Jays are a first-place team," Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell said after Thursday night's game, "because the standings prove it."

Ouch. And then things got worse on Friday, thanks in no small part to former Yankee Juan Soto.

Jul 4, 2025; New York City, New York, USA;  New York Mets right fielder Juan Soto (22) rounds third base in the third inning against the New York Yankees at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

Yankees Slide Continues In Huge Series Against Rival Mets

Here's the thing about Kay's comments: he's right. Run differential is almost always a better predictor of future win-loss records than actual win-loss records. It doesn't mean that the team with the best run differential will inevitably wind up with the best record, but it does generally indicate a higher-quality roster.

Still, the Blue Jays do have plenty of talent, and it is possible for a team to overperform its run differential with a quality bullpen and timely hitting. And when you come out and say, as he did, this other team isn't good enough to be in first place, you'd better hope they don't pull off a sweep and move past you into first place.

On Friday afternoon, things continued to spiral for the Yankees. 

They jumped out to a 2-0 lead with back-to-back first-inning homers against the rival Mets in a huge weekend series in Queens. Only to see Soto tie it back up with an opposite-field homer.

Soto then doubled and scored on a Pete Alonso single in the third. But the Yankees battled back, taking a 5-3 lead in the 5th thanks to Jasson Dominguez's second homer of the game. Every time they seized the momentum though, the Mets would take it right back.

Brett Baty homered to make it 5-4, then Jeff McNeil hit a go-ahead two run homer off Luke Weaver to give the Mets a 6-5 lead they wouldn't relinquish. 

All of a sudden, the Yankees are 1.5 games behind the first-place Blue Jays. They've lost five games in a row. They're just 6-15 in their last 21 games. And while the run differential is great, at some point you actually have to win games for it to matter. That's something the Yankees continue to struggle with.