Can’t overstate how big of a win this is — the Yankees defeated the Blue Jays 4-1 to gain another game on their first place lead in the AL East. The bats delivered some pop while Masahiro Tanaka pitched one of the finest games of his ML career. New York also took the series in enemy’s territory, so that’s pretty cool too.
Early offense attempts
Carlos Beltran did it again – in the first inning, against Marco Estrada, Beltran drove a high fastball over the right field fence for a 1-0 lead. Estrada, by the way, has a 31.9% ground ball rate, which is really, really low. He’s just done a much better job at keeping the ball in the park (0.95 HR/9) than he used to (1.73 HR/9 last year, for instance).
Top third, with one out, Jacoby Ellsbury hit a deep triple to right to set up a scoring situation for Brett Gardner. Gardner, however, struck out after being fooled badly by Estrada’s three straight changeups (that at-bat looked like a clinic for “how to make hitters look really bad with your changeup”). Beltran walked on four pitches but Teixeira bloop-lined out softly to end the inning. Up until the top of sixth, the Yankee offense didn’t have that much going against Estrada.
Maestro Masahiro
Meanwhile on the pitching side, this was probably the biggest Yankee start to date for Tanaka and boy, he showed up. The righty delivered a one-run CG, striking out eight and allowing only five hits. This was a truly ace-like performance, especially with the bullpen quite spent after the past few games.
His start wasn’t without a dent or two; Tanaka started the fifth by walking Ryan Goins on four pitches. He then allowed a slap single to Ben Revere and another four-pitch walk to Troy Tulowitzki to load the bases with no out. This is the definition of not what you want, especially with Josh Donaldson coming up.
After falling behind 2-0 to an MVP candidate in Josh Donaldson, Tanaka threw a 88 mph slider that he just got under – had Donaldson swung a bit more level and squared it up, it could have been out to the seats in a hurry. But instead of a grand slam, Donaldson hit a towering sac fly to tie the game 1-1. Tanaka managed to get out of the inning without further damage by striking out Jose Bautista and inducing a soft line out from Edwin Encarnacion. That outcome, especially considering the Jays lineup, is just tremendous.
Besides that fifth inning, boy, Tanaka was fantastic today. I will take many more starts like that. Especially with Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller not being available, a complete game from a starter was just what the doctor ordered.
Retaking and extending the lead
In the sixth, with two outs, Teixeira pulled a changeup into the second deck for a massive solo home run, 2-1. Chase Headley worked a walk against Estrada and Greg Bird stepped up to the plate, looking for his first ML hit.
On a 1-0 pitch, Bird hit a massive fly ball that hit the top of the second deck seats … that was initially called a foul, just outside the pole. Joe Girardi encouraged the umpires to review the foul, and after replay the call remained. It was foul. Oh well. Bird ended up striking out swinging to end the inning.
In the eighth, Beltran struck again – with one out, he hit a deep double that just missed a homer by inches. Teixeira followed it up with an RBI single to bring in Chris Young (pinch-running for Beltran), making it 3-1.
The Yankees got another insurance in the ninth. John Ryan Murphy led off the inning with a double and Stephden Drew sent him to third with a sacrifice bunt. Ellsbury, who seems to be hitting balls harder lately, lined an RBI single to center to make it 4-1. There’s never an enough insurance runs against the Blue Jays.
Leftovers
Man, how big has Beltran been? Not only did he hit a homer in the first, he also made two not-so-easy inning-ending catches that would’ve scored runs for Toronto. After today’s game, Beltran has a 122 wRC+ and .203 ISO in 2015, which are great – especially for a 38-year old who had a very, very abysmal start to the season.
Greg Bird had his first ML hit in the eighth inning! After starting his career 0-for-8, Bird grounded a pitch from LaTroy Hawkins for a single to opposite field. It also happened to be one of the weaker contacts he’s made in ML, so of course.
“And our long national slow-down is over,” quipped Michael Kay in the ninth as Brett Gardner finally stole a base with two outs. That is his first stolen base since June 12, more than two months ago.
Box score, standings, highlights and WPA
Here’s today’s box score, updated standings, video highlights and WPA.
Source: FanGraphs
The Yankees will go for the series sweep tomorrow with 21-year old Luis Severino on the mound against Drew Hutchinson. This weekend has gone exorbitantly better than the previous weekend so bask in it, readers!
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