Jason Grilli was born in Royal Oak, Michigan and raised in Baldwinsville, New York.
Advertisement
On Tuesday night, so did the vaunted bullpen.
But the latest pitiful performance at the plate – the Yankees have scored five runs over the past four games – and a five-run Toronto seventh against Kirby Yates and Nick Goody dropped them four games below.500 at 24-28. LHP Richard Bleier, 29, became the 12th Yankees pitcher since 1913 to make his major league debut after turning 29 in the 4-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Monday. Betances struck out Smoak and retired Russell Martin on a fly to the warning track in left.
Darwin Barney (three hits) led off with a ground smash to short where Didi Gregorius made a diving stop to his right but could not secure the ball to make a throw. The solo home run came with two outs and was the fifth of the season for Smoak. “I said, ‘Yeah because I’ve got to get guys like you out.’ Leadership comes from where you want it to come from; just to soak in the knowledge and advice”. A few batters simply drove pitches to the wrong part of the ballpark, and Pillar robbed a pair of extra base hits as well.
“Early in the year our pitching would be good and we weren’t scoring runs or the other way around”, Barney said.
“Going into the game I knew that was a pitch that was going to neutralize them”, he said.
Still, neither Sabathia nor Girardi blamed Betances for the outcome. Manager John Gibbons said he was not sure if Grilli would join the team in time for Wednesday’s series finale against the New York Yankees. “These guys are the best in the league”.
If they do go with option two, they will likely need to make a move for another starter in order to preserve their depth.
“When things aren’t going well it seems to really snowball and nearly be a little bit contagious”, outfielder Brett Gardner said.
Kevin Pillar has a pretty good idea that when he gets a ball in his sights, he is going to catch it, no matter how hard it might seem to those in the stands or watching on television.
The right-hander continued his impressive season, going six innings and allowing seven hits and a walk while striking out two.
“We weren’t able to do anything off Sanchez”, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
NEW YORK: The Yankees have been a bit of a mixed bag for bettors. “I can’t even think of any games where he’s really struggled that much”. That uptick in offence helped him this season, but the bigger thing is the work he’s done on the mental side of the game, along with his swing adjustments made with hitting coach Brook Jacoby. “I saw the ball well”, said A-Rod (1-for-4), who doubled in the fourth.
Josh Donaldson pulled off a circus play in the second inning when he initially bobbled a grounder off the bat of Alex Rodriguez, but, nearly as if he were juggling, he managed to barehand the ball, spin and execute a jump-throw to get the out at first. He ended the Yankees’ eighth inning, catching Carlos Beltran’s foul ball by sliding into the retaining wall of the stands just past first base.
CC Sabathia wrote another chapter in his incredible renaissance season, holding the Blue Jays scoreless through six innings before being charged with a couple runs in the seventh. Sabathia has 2,614 strikeouts. Yankees INF/OF Dustin Ackley (torn labrum in right shoulder) has opted for season-ending surgery. This would also prove to be Tanaka’s last inning of the evening, his final line of the night 6IP, 7H, 2R, 1ER, 1BB, 2K on 104 pitches. They lost 3-1. This Tuesday against the Blue Jays a similar scene played out, closely following the bad formula.
The Blue Jays opened the scoring on Josh Donaldson’s RBI single in the fifth.
With the loss, the Yankees were swept in series of three-or-more games at Toronto for the first time since September 19-21, 2000.
Advertisement
Yankees: 2B Starlin Castro got the day off. Castro had played in 50 of New York’s first 51 games.
