After Toronto scored twice in the ninth off Dellin Betances to climb within 7-6, and the bases were loaded when Blake Parker replaced the NY closer with two outs.
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“We’re fine. Extremely confident group of guys that we have”, Stroman said. But the right-hander had a bad sequence of six batters against the Astros, who have won the first two of four games between the playoff contenders. Judge, struggling mightily even to put his bat on the baseball lately, already had come through with a big hit.
Tyler Austin celebrated his 25th birthday with a two-run home run against Aaron Sanchez in the seventh inning to give the Yankees a lead, but the bullpen coughed it up in the eighth, setting the stage for a brutal loss.
New York Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner, left, celebrates making the game-ending catch with center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016, in New York.
And now, they were on the verge of giving it back again. Adam Warren came in to relieve him and then walked Kevin Pillar bringing up Justin Smoak with the bases loaded. No surprise – he was a catcher for more than 17 seasons in the majors.
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. “They played great defence, (Chase) Headley down at third base robbed us a couple of times and Gardner, he’s been known to do that too”.
The win was crucial for the Yankees, who were once considered an afterthought to make the postseason. It was the 10th time this season Pillar had three hits.
AL East-leading Toronto (77-60), which started the day with a one-game advantage over Boston, had been 9-3 against the Yankees this year and won seven of the prior eight matchups.
Suddenly, the Yankees have their sights set on something bigger than the American League wild card.
Bryan Mitchell, however, one-upped him by throwing five shutout innings against the latest Blue Jays batting order, this one featuring Devon Travis in the leadoff spot and Jose Bautista batting cleanup. “But he kept his mind right”.
If all three of the baby bombers can find a way to get red-hot right now, the surging Yankees can find themselves with a terrifyingly good offense down the stretch that other teams will be downright intimidated by.
But somehow, the shedding of a couple of spare parts (Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller) and some exhausted blood (Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez) and replacing it with the youthful exuberance of Judge, Austin and Gary Sanchez has given this club a jolt of adrenaline. “We just didn’t expect to see it this soon. I don’t think you could ask for anything more”.
“I had a lot of movement on it”, Dickey said of his knuckler. “We’ve got guys here who are excited by the moment, and not afraid of it”. Basically, they’re looking for one – unless they should play a doubleheader. “We keep getting closer, and that’s the idea here”. He allowed four runs – three earned – over six innings. So their destiny is exclusively in their own hands.
Joe Girardi is so reluctant to commit to anything beyond the current day’s game that he once justified refusing to name Ivan Nova his starter for the following day by saying, “What if he gets hit by a bus?”
“It’s all in front of us”, he said. The left-handed slugger is one shy of his ninth straight 20-homer season and 10th overall.
“We’re still fighting”, Gregorius said.
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To capture how things are going for the Blue Jays right now, Bautista singled with no one on in the fourth and struck out with a man on second in the sixth.
