Tuesday night, the Blue Jays could not figure out the Yankees’ Michael Pineda, who held them scoreless through five innings.
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Dickey exited after five innings, with the only damage being an Aaron Judge RBI double in the fourth.
J.A. Happ won his 11th consecutive decision to become the first 17-game victor in the majors, and Melvin Upton Jr. hit a three-run homer that propelled the Toronto Blue Jays past the New York Yankees 7-4 on Wednesday.
Impressive rookie Gary Sanchez homered twice for NY, including a titanic, three-run drive deep into the rarely reached second deck in left field. This home run also marked just the fourth time in major league history that both starting catchers hit multiple home runs in the same game. The right-hander, who entered the game with a 7.98 ERA in three August starts, benefited from two double plays. The 24-year-old is 7-for-18 in his first five Major League Baseball games.
Scott Feldman (6-4) replaced ineffective starter Marco Estrada after a rain delay and struck out five in three innings of one-run relief.
The Blue Jays are 39-39 in games where they allow one or more home runs. We have hitters that put tough at-bats on pitchers and even if the pitcher is good that day, we still are able to get the pitch count up and get him out of there. 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.
Former Yankee Russell Martin got into the act in the sixth, capping Toronto’s four-run rally with a solo shot. I didn’t want to go back up there and risk it to where I might have to miss more than a day.
Pillar will take Thursday off and workout with the Blue Jays on Friday in Cleveland.
Logan Forsythe of the Tampa Bay Rays led off the game with a sharp line drive into left field and Kevin Kiermaier followed that with a bunt single. Happ wasn’t at his sharpest, surrendering three home runs, but he did strike out nine and he managed to collect his 17th win of the season with the help of the Blue Jays’ offensive attack. Chasen Shreve followed by throwing 22 pitches to record zero outs against five batters, and that was that. Headley fielded it, but instead of making the throw across the diamond to first, he went to second instead. On the second, a grounder was hit to him for what should’ve been a double play.
CINCINNATI – Brandon Phillips returned to the starting lineup in a big way with two doubles, one of which drove in the go-ahead runs in the seventh inning, lifting Cincinnati to a win over Miami.
Blue Jays: OF Ezequiel Carrera (Achilles) could come off the 15-DL on Tuesday night. To open a roster spot, Toronto designated OF Junior Lake for assignment.
The thought of leaving Pineda in might have crossed Girardi’s mind, of course, especially because the Yankees can no longer lean on the three-headed bullpen monster of Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances to nail down a game, with Chapman and Miller both traded away in the Yankees’ midseason fire sale. Tyler Austin, who started at first base, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
That’s a significant swing from last season, when as the DH, he slashed.301/.397/.595 with 24 homers and 75 RBIs in 85 games, compared to.239/.329/.486 with 14 homers and 34 RBIs in 59 games at first.
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Alex Gordon extended his hitting streak to eight games with a tying home run in the eighth inning off Justin Wilson. His big season is a continuation of his success down the stretch previous year, when he went 7-2 with a 1.85 ERA in 11 starts after getting traded from Seattle to Pittsburgh.
