River Avenue Blues

Pretty forgettable game on Sunday, one of those classic “end of a long road trip” games when entire team seemed like they just wanted to go home. The Jays won 3-0, handing New York their seventh loss in their last eleven games.

The Homerun Regression Tour Continues

Like Bartolo Colon on Saturday, Freddy Garcia did not make it out of the fifth inning. He allowed three runs, two on solo homers by Adam Lind, making it three straight starts in which he’s allowed exactly two homers. Since the end of that 69 IP homerless streak, Sweaty Freddy has allowed seven homers in just 14 IP. The third run scored on a sacrifice fly after Garcia threw a ball away on a bunt attempt. Three runs on five hits and three walks in 4.2 IP raised Garcia’s ERA to 6.00 in 21 IP against Toronto this season. Against everyone else, he has a 3.38 ERA. I don’t think I’m alone in saying: thank goodness they don’t play the Blue Jays again this year.

No Fight

With the season winding down and the Yankees having a pretty comfortable lead on the playoff spot, Joe Girardi understandably rested some of his regulars on Sunday afternoon. Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, and Curtis Granderson did not play at all, and Robinson Cano got a half-day off at DH. Unsurprisingly, they struggled on offense. Eduardo Nunez (of all people) was the lone bright spot, going 3-for-4 with a double. He would have had a fourth hit (and another double) if it wasn’t for a nice lunging catch by Eric Thames in left, a ball hit right to the warning track. Of course, Nunez got thrown out at second trying to stretch a single into a double at one point, another example of the team’s recent baserunning stupidity.

Aside from that, the Yankees went a combined 2-for-26 with a walk, striking out nine times against Brandon Morrow. They worked the count well early, forcing the righty to throw 39 pitches in the first two innings, but he settled down and needed just 68 pitches for the final six frames.  Frank Francisco threw a chair scoreless ninth, striking out Alex Rodriguez to end it.

Leftovers

Aside from Scott Proctor (one intentional walk, one unintentional walk, one hit, one out) and Aaron Laffey (walked the only man he faced), the bullpen was pretty solid. Luis Ayala bailed Garcia out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth then tacked on a perfect sixth. Raul Valdes, pitching for the first time as a Yankee and the first time since August 29th, made a nice impression by striking out Lind and Colby Rasmus looking. He might get another look this week, just because. George Kontos threw one pitch, getting out of the eighth because Russell Martin threw someone out stealing. That’s really it, not much more to talk about.

The Rays beat the Red Sox (again), so the lead in the division remains at 4.5 games while the lead in the wildcard shrunk to 6.5 games. The magic number to clinch the division is down to seven, the magic number to clinch a playoff spot just five.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs has some more advanced stats, and ESPN has the updated standings.

Up Next

At long last, it’s time for the Yankees to go home. They’re going to play a one-game makeup with the Twins on Monday afternoon, a 1:05pm ET start that will feature A.J. Burnett and Scott Diamond. Minnesota is just 9-36 since July 30th, and they’re without Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Jason  Kubel due to injuries.

This one looked pretty bad early on. Like, really bad. Will the score be so out of hand that Dellin Betances and/or Andrew Brackman actually get to pitch bad. And yet, a few innings later, there was Mariano Rivera on the mound, nailing down the 601st save of his career. Hooray for come from behind wins…

• You typically can’t have a comeback win without awful pitching, so Bartolo Colon jumped on the grenade Saturday afternoon. The big fella lasted just four innings, exiting the game after allowing six runs on seven hits and a walk. He threw only 67 pitches, and his Game Score of 25 was the 11th worst by a Yankees pitcher this season. Colon now has a 7.98 ERA in 23.2 IP against Toronto this season, but a 3.06 ERA in 132.1 IP against everyone else. Good thing the Jays aren’t going to the postseason, eh?
• The Yankees were down four-zip heading into the fourth, and that’s when they started to chip away. Curtis Granderson scored the team’s first run when Adam Loewen dropped a fly ball in lefty, and the inning would have been bigger if it wasn’t for Robinson Cano’s stupid baserunning. With men on second and third with one out, Nick Swisher clubbed a deep fly ball that Colby Rasmus managed to run down for the second out. Either Cano wasn’t paying attention or he forgot how many outs there were or something else, but he kept running and passed Mark Teixeira (the lead baserunner) on the bases to end the inning. It’s the second time on the road trip that Robbie make a huge baserunning blunder, and Tex called him out on it after the game.
• After Colon gave two runs back in the bottom of the inning, the Yankees went to work. Teixeira (who had a pair of hits back up the middle, not his usually pull happy stuff) drove in Grandy, then two batters later Alex Rodriguez ripped a line drive three-run homer over the left field wall to make it 6-5. Alex singled in his first at-bat, and both hits came on inside fastballs. Pretty good sign following the thumb injury. Granderson completed the comeback in the seventh, when he whacked a two-run homer to center on the 12th pitch of a monster at-bat. Curtis was a triple shy of the cycle, and it all started with a first inning bunt single. As they say, sometimes a little bunt hit can help end a slump.
• All the runs were great, but they wouldn’t have meant anything if it wasn’t for five stellar innings from the bullpen. Scott Proctor took over in the fifth and immediately walked leadoff man Jose Bautista, but that was it. Adam Lind grounded into a double play as the next batter, and the bullpen retired the final 14 batters they faced. Aaron Laffey threw the sixth, Hector Noesi the seventh, Rafael Soriano the eighth (struck out the side for the second straight day), and of course Mo handled the ninth. As you already know, he tied Trevor Hoffman for the most career saves in baseball history. It doesn’t get any better than that, just a stellar job by the relief corps. All five of ’em.
• The Rays beat the Red  Sox, so the lead in the division increased to 4.5 games while wildcard lead remained at 7.5. The magic number to clinch a playoff spot is just five. Here’s the box score, here’s the advanced stats, and here’s the standings.

The rubber game of this series will be played Sunday afternoon, when Freddy Garcia starts against Brandon Morrow at 1:07pm ET. It was supposed to be Dustin McGowan for Toronto, but he had to start Friday after Brett Cecil cut his finger cleaning a blender.