The Blue Jays may have lost a reliever to injury after Monday night’s brawl-filled matchup with the Yankees as Joaquin Benoit left the stadium on crutches during the game. But I can move my arm today. Four Yankees were ejected before the end of the second inning, and the Yankees trailed heading into the ninth when Teixeira tied the game a massive home run, which he punctuated with an over-the-top bat flip. The second inning largely defined it.
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Heading home for their final six games, the Yankees are now five games out of the second wild card spot. Video of the incident shows Travis bouncing between teammates and Yankees in the middle of the scrum as the two sides came together.
It all started with a first-inning pitch that hit Jays slugger Josh Donaldson. Happ missed behind Headley with the first pitch before hitting him on his second attempt.
Both benches and bullpens emptied but there was no real venom. Dellin Betances entered in the ninth for the Yankees and allowed a leadoff walk to Justin Smoak.
“I believe, as pitchers, we are entitled to use the whole plate if we want to, if that’s the way we’re going to succeed”, said Benoit.
Toronto manager John Gibbons has been sensitive about pitchers throwing inside with abandon at his potent lineup. Definitely I feel better than yesterday. “But if you do that, you’re accepting the consequences”.
Escalating acts of aggression seem foolish at the best of times, but when one team has everything to fight for and the other has nothing to lose, the consequences of such actions can have far greater importance.
“Listen, (the Jays) are the kings of fun”. “Stroman was friggin screaming at our guys when he pitching, yelling at our guys to get off the field when he’d strike someone out, so you got to take some of your medicine”. On that front, they got a taste of their own medicine.
The physical toll of the evening has yet to be counted. Travis left Monday after aggravating the injury during his next at-bat. Bautista singled, Martin walked and Tulowitzki hit an RBI double. His second lasted just two pitches. “That was a tough process for me”, Travis said. I wasn’t having my control in the first inning.
Quite why throwing a 90-mph pitch at an opponent remains just a baseball play is something for the sport’s leaders to explain.
Former New York Mets general manager turned analyst Jim Duquette took a shot at them during an MLB Network Radio appearance Tuesday morning. We did as well. In the heat of battle, it is understandable how a situation might escalate before cooler heads prevail. Happ has issued retaliatory beanballs before in defense of Donaldson. You throw it behind a guy and you miss, he’s got to be tossed. “That’s bad, it’s awful”, he said. “I don’t think that’s going to be the case, but I don’t make the suspensions so I don’t know what’s going to happen”.
After Didi Gregorius singled, Aaron Hicks went deep to right for a 5-3 lead.
Jacoby Ellsbury hit an RBI single and Gary Sanchez a sac fly off Danny Barnes that gave the Yankees a 7-3 lead.
So the Yankees carried a big 7-3 lead to the ninth. But it was too little too late.
Neither is expected to play much of a role with rosters already expanded.
The Blue Jays (86-70) are in the first AL wild-card spot, one game ahead of the Baltimore Orioles (85-71).
White Sox 3, Indians 0: Carlos Rodon struck out a career-high 11 over eight innings, and Chicago denied Cleveland a chance of winning the AL Central title at home.
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The Yankees offensive slump reached near-historic proportions with another demoralizing loss on Saturday – their third scoreless game in a row dating back to the series finale in Tampa. All of this to say, Benoit could be back sooner than his prognosis; he could also be finished for the season.
