Like Wells, Happ is in his second stint with the Blue Jays. It’s put them in a new position in the pennant race, too.
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J.A. Happ became baseball’s first 17-game victor of the season and the Blue Jays became the sixth visitor in history to win five consecutive series at Yankee Stadium with a 7-4 victory Wednesday afternoon.
Justin Smoak and Melvin Upton Jr. struck out with runners on second and third to end the fifth. The Yankees won the last game 1-0, and NY leads the series 1-0.
It’s unclear where the Yankees will sit in the standings come September, but with the team just 5.5 games behind the first-place Blue Jays, the early-month matchup might be imperative to playoff positioning. NY has won nine of its last 14 since the non-waiver trade deadline, which saw the trades of Aroldis Chapman, Carlos Beltran and Andrew Miller. Gary Sanchez homered twice while Pineda allowed four hits in five scoreless innings before the game changed drastically for the Yankees. “His key will be how he commands his fastball”, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
The Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners 7-6, the Pittsburgh Pirates upstaged the San Francisco Giants 4-3, the Atlanta Braves fell 4-2 to the Minnesota Twins, the New York Mets posted a 7-5 victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cincinnati Reds saw off the Miami Marlins 6-3, while the Washington Nationals were beaten 6-2 by the Colorado Rockies. But he was charged with a season-high seven runs and nine hits while losing his fifth straight start against Toronto. In fact, he was unhittable through the first 13 batters of the game. He struck out seven and walked a pair in 6 2/3 innings as the Cubs improved to 6-0 in his past six starts. “We have good hitters that put tough at-bats on pitchers, and even if a pitcher is good that day, we tend to get the pitch count up and get them out of there”. “He’s more of a command guy”, Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “I already had shoulder surgery, and they said, ‘You know what, take it easy'”. He’s 5 for 10 since being called up.
“A little experiment”, Judge said.
“It was scored a fielder”s choice.
Normally when a team hits three home runs in a game, it would be a pretty good day for that team’s offense. Donaldson followed with a bases-loaded walk, forcing in a run to make it 10-6-forcing the Yankees hand to make another pitching change.
CLEVELAND – Adam Eaton’s ninth-inning grand slam off closer Cody Allen capped a five-run rally and lifted the Chicago White Sox to a 10-7 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night. The Yankees are 36-46 when they allow at least one homer. Stan Bahnsen was the first, in 1968.
Blue Jays: OF Ezequiel Carrera (Achilles) could come off the 15-DL Tuesday night.
Gardner will hold things down in left field for the Yankees after missing the past four games with a right ankle injury.
Girardi on this night did not want Pineda back on the mound.
RED SOX 8, ORIOLES 1 (6): Former Rays ace David Price allowed four hits before a rainstorm stopped play for good after six innings, and visiting Boston won its sixth straight.
Sabathia left after six innings.
Toronto entered the game 16-11 since the all-star break, the third best record over that span.
There was some thought of inserting Marco Estrada into the Sunday start because he worked just four innings and 57 pitches in a rain-delayed game Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
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DETROIT – Eric Hosmer broke up Anibal Sanchez’s no-hit bid in the seventh, then hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the ninth to give streaking Kansas City a 4-1 win over Detroit.
