Toronto Blue Jays batters re-discovered the baseball Tuesday night as they defeated the Yankees in NY by a clear margin of 12 to 6. The Yankees trail by 5 1/2, 6 in the loss column. “I do like playing in NY; it’s a good city”. Things really have changed around here, huh?
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Didi Gregorius hit his 16th homer. After he got the first two hitters in the bottom of the fifth, Chase Headley doubled down the right field line and Gregorius drove him home with a single up the middle.
All the Yankees runs against Estrada came in three different innings after two were out with no runners on base. It takes the edge off right away, you know? Early leads are fun.
Yankees rookie Gary Sanchez got things started, belting a solo shot in the second inning for his third homer in the major leagues. It was a full count changeup from Marco Estrada, a certifiable changeup master. He said the Donaldson at-bat took a lot out of him. That gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead. It also concluded his second two-homer performance of the year, as he also went deep twice against the Yankees in NY on May 25.
Like Swarzak, Warren was a glorified batting-practice pitcher. It was also the kind of home run that ruins the night for the opposing starting pitcher. The gentleman’s bat flip. He must have learned that from Alex Rodriguez. The last of which came in the form of a three run shot off the bat of Gary Sanchez giving NY a 5-0 lead as rain and lightning began to fill the western sky.
Rangers 5, Athletics 2 • Adrian Beltre hit a grand slam and Martin Perez pitched seven strong innings for his first win since late June, leading Texas to a win at home. That’s pretty cool. The last over-30 guy to go deep was Mark Teixeira on August 3rd.
Michael Pineda was in the midst of one of the cleanest starts of his miserable 2016 season. He limited the Blue Jays to four singles in five shutout innings while striking out two. We’ve seen Pineda unravel in these situations, but he induced Martin to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning. The Yankees didn’t want to push him after sitting that long.
A rain storm would swoop in and put the game into a delay halfway through the fifth. Everything after that was a nightmare.
The Yankees scored their sixth run immediately after the rain delay.
It’s going to be great. Things were fun for a while. Since joining the Blue Jays, he is 3-2 with a 3.97 ERA in seven starts against the Yankees.
Russell Martin gave the Blue Jays the lead with a two-run shot in the eighth inning. A Headley era contributed to a run earlier in the frame.
The 6-4, 210-pounder required Tommy John surgery in July, 2014. The Yankees only had to get nine more outs to clinch the win, and their back-end relievers were fresh. Tyler Clippard pitched a ideal 7th. Good. This is good. Wendelstedt stayed in for the rest of the inning, then left for the night. The bad half of the game featured parade of ineffective relievers. NY is also 1-4 in Sabathia’s last five home starts and 1-5 in Sabathia’s last six starts against the AL East. It continued with Adam Warren in the eighth.
Despite turning to his cutter the third-most of any pitch on Monday (14.42%), this was the lowest total on the season, except for Green’s first start in which he didn’t throw the pitch at all (he only threw fastballs, sinkers, and sliders).
“I’ve got no complaints”, Gibbons said before the game when asked about his team’s approach at the plate. He puts together tough at-bats like that. The Donaldson walk set the tone for the entire inning.
Home plate umpire Scott Barry (87) who came in for Hunter Wendelstadt after Wendelstadt left the game, signals to the pitcher after Toronto Blue Jays’ Melvin Upton Jr.
(2) Edwin Encarnacion’s game-tying home run was absolutely demolished.
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Ex-Yankee Russell Martin followed with a huge home run to left-center, cutting the Yankees lead to 6-4 and ending Swarzak’s night. Michael Saunders has hit 105 times with 60 runs, 20 homers and 49 RBI. Encarnacion is known to do that. “And obviously, a little demoralizing when you walk him”.
