The scoreboard had some disheartening early numbers involving Houston and Baltimore, two of the teams ahead of the Yankees in the wild-card hunt.
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“You just try to anticipate it falling back in the zone”, Ellsbury said. He got Gerardo Parra to hit into a double play to end the game.
The NL West-leading L.A. Dodgers maintained their four-game lead by beating Arizona 5-2 for their fourth straight win.
With only six outs remaining – but Betances only available for three of them after the closer pitched the past two games – Girardi kept Warren in the game after he had already recorded five outs. Their big failure in the Bronx on Tuesday was their inability to capitalize with runners on base, stranding 11 while hitting 4-for-11 with runners in scoring position. A worn out Dellin Betances wasn’t very effective and needed to be replaced mid-inning, and the Blue Jays very almost clawed all the way back to tie the game. He walked Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson to start the inning, and it got worse. There’s no way to defend against a walk, and there was no way to defend against the two-run double that Edwin Encarnacion hit to drive in Carrera and Bautista. Russell Martin struck out and pinch hitter Dioner Navarro walked to load the bases. Blake Parker, the eighth NY pitcher, suddenly became an unlikely closer, and he struck out Kevin Pillar. Parker struck out Pillar on a curve ball, freezing the Jays’ centre fielder.
Justin Smoak came within about a foot of a game-winning grand slam when, with the bases loaded and the Jays down to their last out, he sent an opposite-field fly to the wall in left field.
The game was in doubt right up until its final moment as Brett Gardner made a leaping catch at the wall with the bases loaded, robbing Justin Smoak of a go-ahead extra-base hit.
“I felt like I was all over the place”, Tanaka said through a translator.
Gardner’s catch was the kind he made regularly in 2010 and 2011, when he had the most defensive runs saved of any left fielder.
The Yankees needed Gregorius’ hit and slide because they were unable to protect a 3-2 lead.
“We haven’t been playing very good baseball and I’m sure that other teams have taken notice to that and I don’t want to say we’re scaring some people, but we’re obviously playing better baseball recently, which is good to see”.
NY is also 3 1/2 games back in the Wild Card standings.
Dickey (9-14) gave up five runs and seven hits in four innings on a blustery afternoon, his second shortest start this season. With the Yanks down 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, fellow rookie Aaron Judge singled before Austin hit a two-run shot to give NY a brief 3-2 lead. Austin’s two-run homer in the seventh was especially frustrating as he is New York’s No. 9 hitter and it came with two out.
“I was anxious”, Joe Girardi said when Smoak made contact. “We’ve got guys here who are excited by the moment, and not afraid of it”. “But it is what it is, and you have to move on from it”.
The clubs exchanged leads all night, the dagger came for Toronto in the eighth. Yanks starter Luis Cesa allowed to runs through 5.1 innings with DelIn Betance giving up a pair of 9th inning runs.
The New York Yankees are still in the running for a Wild Card but need wins and some help.
Encarnacion hit his 37th homer into the second deck for Toronto and tied his career high with 111 RBIs.
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Kendrys Morales and Eric Hosmer each homered and the Royals pounded out 16 hits as Kansas City started a critical six-game road trip with a win. Stroman struck out only three against NY on April 14 but scattered two runs and three hits across eight innings to earn a win.Mitchell was recalled with the expanded rosters and is getting a chance in the rotation spot vacated by Chad Green (elbow), though manager Joe Girardi indicated that several pitchers could get a long look on Wednesday.
