Recap: Toronto Blue Jays Bullpen Struggles in 7th; Bats cold as Blue Jays fall to Yankees

Toronto Blue Jays- 3 vs New York Yankees -7

W: Chase Whitley (3-0, 2.56 ERA)

L: Mark Buehrle (10-4, 2.32 ERA)

It was yet another quiet night for the Toronto Blue Jays bats’ as the Jays fell 7-3 to the New York Yankees for the 2nd time in two nights. The Toronto Blue Jays have now lost 9 of their past 12 games while the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees are quietly creeping up on them for 1st place in the AL East.

The night began with the Blue Jays falling behind the Yankees 1-0 until the 4th inning; after Edwin Encarnacion reached base on a fielder’s choice and Brett Lawrie was hit by a pitch, Jays’ catcher Dionner Navarro singled off Chase Whitley to score Encarnacion, tying the game up at 1 after Juan Fransisco and Steve Tolleson were retired. Due up was Colby Rasmus, who was returning after missing 35 games with a hamstring injury. Rasmus was on a 9-game hit streak before injuring his hamstring and continued that streak Wednesday night after he hit an RBI single to score Brett Lawrie to put the Jays up 2-1.

The Yankees quickly erased the 2-1 deficit in the bottom of the fourth when highly paid off-season acquisition Brian McCann, smacked a no-out, 2-run, go-ahead homer, his 8th of the season off Blue Jays’ ace, Mark Buehrle to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. The game went by quietly until the 7th inning, when Chad Jenkins replaced Mark Beurhle, who finished the night with 6 IP to along with 2 earned runs and 2 walks as well as 4 K’s. Jenkins allowed 3 hits against 4 batters, being charged with 3 earned runs in .1 innings pitched.

After Brett Cecil replaced Jenkins in the 7th, he gave up a walk to Ichiro Suzuki as well as a triple to the player of the game, Brian McCann, giving up an earned run in 2/3 of an inning. Although, the Blue Jays attempted to make things interesting in the 8th inning when Melky Cabrera hit a leadoff double followed by a Jose Bautista RBI double. Unfortunately, they couldn’t muster up enough offence after Yankee’s setup man Dellin Betances and his dominant pitching numbers (40.2 IP, 68 K’s, 1.55 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, ridiculous) came in to strike out Encarnacion and Navarro as well as pop-up Steve Tolleson to end the 8th.

Sergio Santos pitched for the Blue Jays in the bottom of the 8th and escaped run-free after giving up a 2-out double to future hall-of-famer Derek Jeter. David Roberston replaced Betances in the 9th and had a perfect inning to hand the Blue Jays their 2nd straight loss and continued Mark Buehrle‘s failure to win against the New York Yankees.

The Blue Jays look to salvage a win when they take on the Yankees in final of the 3-game series, where Drew Hutchison will toe the rubber against Yankees’ David Phelps.

Notes:

Blue Jays’ 3rd baseman Brett Lawrie left game with hand injury after being hit-by-pitch.

Blue Jays’ LP Brett Cecil placed on DL with a groin strain after the game