Gardner immediately flinched after he was struck in the fourth inning but stayed in the game without a problem. “It was a long ways away”. Not since May 1999 against the Angels had the Yankees been blanked in two straight – that stretch of 2,665 games between consecutive shutouts was the longest in major league history, the team said in citing research by the Elias Sports Bureau. “I’ve got a hard head, so it’s all good”. “It’s over with. Glad I didn’t get hurt”. It’s a tradition for fans to throw opposing home run balls back onto the field, but this time, the ball hit Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner right in the head – see what he has to say about the “unfortunate” situation! Those tosses rarely come close to hitting players on the field.
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In fact, there have only been eight games all season in which the Blue Jays couldn’t get at least the tying run to the on-deck circle in the eighth inning or later. They were issued a warning but were not ejected from the ballpark.
Toronto, who has a scheduled off-day Monday, stunned the Yankees in New York with a three-game sweep over the weekend, finishing up with a 2-0 shutout on Sunday. We need more high scoring games, with several infuriating lead changes in between, where fans actually feel engaged for the entire duration of the game, not just a couple innings.
In that short span, the Blue Jays have not only knocked six and a half games off the Yankees’ now-very-surmountable lead in the AL East, they’ve done it by laying waste to three teams that were ahead of them in the standings. We know if we can get a few runs up on the board….
It’s tough to do something no Red Sox player has ever done, but it happened Sunday.
“He hasn’t thrown many days on normal rest”, said Yankees manager Joe Girardi on the reason to pull his Japanese star so early. I don’t know if [facing] the knuckleballers had anything to do with it or it’s just our turn on the struggle wheel because of the ebbs and flows of a season.
Estrada turned in his third scoreless start of the year and exited with two on in the seventh.
Cashman said no one in the organization figured the division was wrapped up when the Yankees had a six-game lead.
In other words, they just took arguably three of the best teams in the AL and made them all look like they belonged in the Florida Gulf Coast League. “You figure at his age you start losing that a little bit”. Bryan Mitchell and Adam Warren are the top candidates.
Toronto optioned reserve infielder Munenori Kawasaki to Triple-A Buffalo to open a roster spot for utility infielder Cliff Pennington, acquired Saturday in a trade with Arizona.
The Blue Jays haven’t made the playoffs since then, but their recent run amid a flurry of trades at the deadline has the city and the clubhouse buzzing. Pennington can play shortstop as well as second base and hit.
Since acquiring shortstop Troy Tulowitzki from Colorado, the Blue Jays are 11-0 with him in the starting lineup.
Bad: Twins starting pitcher Phil Hughes gave up seven earned runs on nine hits in just three innings, as the Indians beat the Twins.
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Fresh off an impressive major league debut, Luis Severino will make his second start for the Yankees as they open a three-game series at Cleveland.
