Bryan Mitchell earned his first major league win, combining with Luis Severino and Tyler Clippard to shut down the risky Toronto Blue Jays, and the New York Yankees kept up their surprising surge with a 2-0 victory Wednesday night that completed a three-game sweep.
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The Toronto Blue Jays’ starting rotation has stumbled a bit over the past week, with R.A. Dickey, J.A. Happ and Marco Estrada all failing to pitch beyond the fifth inning and posting a combined 10.03 ERA over 11.2 innings of work.
The Blue Jays had already scored twice in the ninth off Dellin Betances when they loaded the bases with one out. Blake Parker, the eighth NY pitcher, suddenly became an unlikely closer, and he struck out Kevin Pillar.
Kang hit a drive deep into the bullpen in left-center off rookie Alex Reyes (1-1) for his 17th homer and third in two games.
Gardner ran back, jumped and corralled the ball at the top of the fence as he banged into the padding.
After he landed and realized the ball was in his mitt, Gardner leapt again with fists raised to celebrate the Yankees’ third straight win. A few minutes later, a replay of the catch drew another ovation from the fans.
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.
Gonzalez added two doubles for Houston, a major league-best 13-4 since August 19.
Reliever James Hoyt (1-0) struck out two in 1 1-3 innings for his first major league win. The 29-year-old rookie replaced Brad Peacock, who was called up to replace an injured Dallas Keuchel and made his first start since April 14, 2015.
Troy Tulowitzki doubled with one out in the seventh, but Severino, who allowed one hit and struck out three in his outing, retired the next two batters.
Pillar was one-man wrecking crew for the Jays in a losing effort, recording three hits, including a two-run double in the eighth inning to lift Toronto to a 4-3 lead.
He has homered in five straight games, tying Harmon Killebrew and Marty Cordova for the longest streak in Twins history.
RED SOX 7, PADRES 2 Travis Shaw, Hanley Ramirez and Brock Holt homered and David Price threw seven solid innings to lead visiting Boston past San Diego, moving the Red Sox into first place in the AL East.
Abreu connected off Matt Boyd (5-3) in the second for his 23rd homer as Chicago got its third win in nine games.
The Orioles put their September 6 game out of reach early, exploding for a six-run fourth inning that essentially buried the Rays.
Odorizzi (9-6) lost for the first time in 10 starts since the All-Star break, giving up seven runs, six hits and three walks over four innings.
ATHLETICS 3, ANGELS 2: Joey Wendle hit a go-ahead single during a three-run eighth inning and Oakland rallied to beat Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, that someone was right-handed starter Bryan Mitchell. Kevin Pillar has hit 125 times with 52 runs and 48 RBI so far. The Yankees won 2-0. Santiago Casilla pitched the ninth for his 31st save. Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner added two hits apiece. “It doesn’t matter who’s hitting”.
Souza had been in a 5-for-40 slump without a home run. NY was shut out by Baltimore in both of his last two outings. It was also their first sweep against a winning club.
Make it 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and five men left on base.
Despite Toronto being unable to score a single run tonight.
That wasn’t the case Wednesday, when Marcus Stroman needed 97 pitches to grind through five frames, but allowed just two runs while striking out eight. “He had such an easy fifth inning that I chose to let him go out”.
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Taylor pinch-ran after reliever Jose Ramirez (2-2) walked Ryan Zimmerman. He delivered five scoreless innings against one of the best lineups in baseball.
