Happ (17-3) allowed three home runs for the second time this season and sixth time in his career.
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Judge homered in his first two big league games over the weekend, and drove in the only run this time. That’s exactly what the Yankees did today.
That was key, said catcher Russel Martin, who hit two home runs in the game.
Inconsistent and often unhappy about having to shift between a spot in the rotation and the bullpen when he first pitched in Toronto from 2012 to 2014, the left-hander did not do himself any favours when he posted a 4.39 earned run average in 50 starts.
In the second, Ezequiel Carrera had an RBI double, and Darwin Barney followed with a two-run double to give Toronto a 3-0 lead. The Blue Jays’ 12-6 lead looked as discouraging as the 5 ½ game Wild Card berth deficit the Yankees would face following the loss. Roberto Osuna fanned Didi Gregorius for the final out of the eighth with two on and quickly finished off his 27th save in the ninth.NOTES: According to YES Network research, C Gary Sanchez (23 years, 259 days), is the youngest Yankee to bat fourth before September 1 since Don Mattingly on July 31, 1984 (23 years, 103 days).
Headley atoned somewhat for his flubs with a solo home run in the sixth to make it 7-3.
The Yankees sent Luis Severino back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after he got hit hard by Tampa Bay in a start Sunday. Betances held on for his fifth save as the Yankees stopped a five-game losing streak to Toronto. Headley fielded it, but instead of making the throw across the diamond to first, he went to second instead. They weren’t so keen on a 5-10, 190-pound frame sticking at shortstop, and the Oakland brain trust has been using him a bit at second base this season.
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).
2 run blasts from Edwin Encarnacion and Russell Martin would put the Jays up for the first time of the night, 8-6.
Tulowitzki singled in front of Martin’s 12th homer, a high fly to right that put Toronto ahead.
Promoted earlier in the day from Triple-A for his fifth stint of the season with the Yankees, Green (2-2) was in complete control. The pivotal moment in the inning came as Biagini fanned Chase Headley on a checked-swing fastball to keep it a one-run ball game.
Boone Logan (2-2) struck out Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper to end the eighth before Scott Oberg allowed a solo home run to Chris Heisey before closing it out for his first save.
Yankees: LF Brett Gardner (ankle) sat out his fourth straight game. Judge and Green have been joined by the likes of newcomers Gary Sanchez and Tyler Austin. In other words, pitchers who are able to create a large amount of ground balls tend to allow less runs to score.
“We know we can’t give them extra base runners or extra outs because they turn that into big innings and they did it to us (Wednesday), and they did it to us (Tuesday)”, Girardi said.
The Yankees will hope there are no more drastic turnarounds against them Wednesday and hope CC Sabathia can follow Pineda’s strong outing.
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According to Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com, Donaldson was taken out of the game after jamming his right thumb during the game against NY.
