Following the loss of game one, the Toronto Blue Jays (77-60) looked to rebound Tuesday night against the New York Yankees (71-65).
Advertisement
“If you try to change how you throw because you got guys on and let the situation put pressure on you, that’s when you typically fail”, Layne said. “I felt like my curve ball was good when I needed it, my changeup was good when I needed it”. Manager Joe Girardi said he was leaning toward starting Mitchell on Wednesday.
With normal seventh inning man Adam Warren unavailable, Jonathan Holder was the first to get a call. Toronto DH-1B Edwin Encarnacion is 5-for-9 with a home run and four RBIs in the series.3.
Encarnacion turned a 2-1, two-out first-inning fastball from Cessa into a frightening line drive that likely would have found its way to CT had not the second deck in left got in the way.
The shutout bid ended when pinch-hitter Chris Young homered off Brad Hand in the eighth. Bautista lined an RBI single into left field for a 2-1 lead but the inning stalled when third baseman Chase Headley made a diving stop on a ball hit by Donaldson and Encarnacion flied out to the right-field warning track. “It’s a matter of executing pitches”.
Clippard, filling in as the closer with Dellin Betances and Adam Warren unavailable, struck out two in a flawless ninth to finish the five-hitter.
“But as I said, everything was so much in front of us because we play so much in our division”, Girardi said. “It’s just frustrating not getting the results I want to get”. “We just need either a big play or a big hit somewhere to get us going back in the right direction”, catcher Russell Martin said. I thought he was very sharp.
At a season-high seven games over.500, the Yankees closed within 4 1/2 games of first place, their smallest deficit since April, and remained 3 1/2 back for the AL’s second wild card. McCann reached the second deck in right field for his 17th home run with two outs in the fourth to tie it.
Scherzer (16-7) scattered seven hits and yielded two runs to win his fourth consecutive start.
The scoreboard had some disheartening early numbers involving Houston and Baltimore, two of the teams ahead of the Yankees in the wild-card hunt. Aaron Judge was also out of the lineup.
There was a runner on first with one out in the sixth when Cessa departed.
This was only the second time in the past 73 games the Blue Jays have been shut out, both coming against the Yankees.
After Troy Tulowitzki’s one-out double in the seventh, the Yankees successfully challenged an infield hit by Michael Saunders; the review denied Toronto of having runners at the corners and one out.
Blue Jays: Following an off day, Toronto begins a pivotal, three-game series Friday night at home against Boston. With help of a strong-ish, but mostly accurate throw from Jose Bautista to get Starlin Castro trying to stretch a single, Sanchez worked his way through the first two innings relatively easily.
That’s what has made his last three games so startling, as Grilli has blown two leads and allowed six earned runs on three hits and three walks, including two homers. The veteran knuckleballer fell to 0-6 at New York since being acquired from the New York Mets following the 2012 season.
“I had a lot of movement on it”, he said of his knuckler.
Hitting 40 home runs in a single season is a very hard task for anyone to achieve, let alone for second basemen, who are known for more their defence and speed than they are for their power. He’s 0-3 in stints the past two years with NY.
Bettis (12-7) was ideal until Eduardo Nunez singled with two outs in the fifth inning.
Advertisement
Hamels (14-5) was knocked around for the second time in a week by the Mariners and failed to make it through two innings for just the second time in his career. After Judge struck out, Austin roped a two-run double off the left field wall.
