Yankees hold off late surge to beat Blue Jays 6-3

The Blue Jays and Yankees squared off in the middle game of the 3 game set. The Blue Jays picked up the first and were looking to get a big win sent Marco Estrada to the mound for his first start as a Blue Jay since being acquired back in November. The Yankees sent out Michael Pineda to try and even out the series in Toronto.

Jacoby Ellsbury started out the game with a single to center field. Brett Gardner hit a slow ball out to right field. With his speed he was able to make it to 2nd base. With two runners in scoring position and no outs Alex Rodriguez hit a double to left field to score both runners. Mark Teixeira hit into a fielders choice as Marco Estrada was able to catch Alex Rodriguez napping on 2nd base. Marco Estrada settled down and got the next two batters out but the Yankees got an early 2-0 lead.

Russell Martin continued to keep his bat hot with a two out double to right field in the bottom of the 1st inning. Russell was stranded on base after Edwin Encarnacion struck out.

After two nice strike outs by Marco Estrada, Gregorio Petit hit an infield single to Josh Donaldson but the ball was thrown away allowed Gregorio to advance to 2nd base. Jacoby Ellsbury hit his 2nd single of the game driving in the runner from 2nd base. Jacoby Ellsbury took off on the first pitch and stole 2nd base. Brett Gardner hit a flew out to center but the Yankees add another run making it a 3-0 lead.

Chris Colabello picked up his first hit as a Blue Jay with a two out single in the bottom of the 2nd inning.

Brian McCann picked up a two out single in the top of the 3rd inning. Carlos Beltran stranded the runner after striking out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 3rd inning Ezequiel Carrera lead off with a walk. Devon Travis hit into a fielders choice beating out a double play ball to the shortstop. Russell Martin hit his 2nd double of the game allowing Devon Travis to advance to 3rd base. Edwin Encarnacion hit a long fly ball to left field to strand both runners on base.

Jacoby Ellsbury hit his 3rd single of the game to lead off the top of the 5th inning.  Jacoby Ellsbury was able to once again steal 2nd base off of Marco Estrada. Mark Teixeira hit a two out two run home run to straight away center field. That spelled the end of Marco Estrada`s night in Toronto. Jeff Francis came into the game to close out the inning.

Devon Travis hit a two out double in the bottom of the 5th inning. Once again the runner was stranded after Josh Donaldson grounded out to 3rd base.

Edwin Encarnacion picked up a one out single in the 6th inning. Justin Smoak hit into a double play to end the inning.

In the 8th inning Brian McCann drew a one out walk. Stephen Drew hit a two out single to right center field. With two outs Didi Gregorius hit a single to score the runner from 2nd base.

In the 9th inning the Yankees relieved Michael Pineda and brought in David Carpenter. Russell Martin broke the shut out with a solo home run. Kevin Pillar drew a walk with two outs. He advanced to 2nd base on defensive indiference. Chris Colabello hit a ground rule double to score Kevin Pillar. Ryan Goins hit a single to right field that scored Chris Colabello. That brought the score to 6-3 and the yankees needed to bring in their closer Andrew Miller. Jose Bautista came into to pinch hit for Ezequiel Carrera. Two outs and a runner on 2nd base Jose walked to bring up Devon Travis and the tying run at the plate. Devon Travis hit a fly ball to end the game. The late rally came up short.

Game Notes:

• The Blue Jays offense just could not string anything together off of Michael Pineda.
• Russell Martin was entering the game with a red hot bad. The last 14 days Russell has hit .349 going 15/43 with 11 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI and 1 SB. Those numbers kept climbing when he went 3-4 with two doubles and a homerun. Tonight raised his season average to .263.
• Marco Estrada made his first start as a Blue Jay. He extended the strike zone with some nice control but couldn`t get out of the 5th inning. He finished with a line of 4.2 IP, 3K, giving up 5 total runs.
• Chris Colabello had a good start as a Blue Jay going 2-4 at the plate and picking up an RBI and a run.
• Steve Delabar made his debut and pitched fairly well. His fast ball was able to stick around 95-96 MPH.
• Chad Jenkins made his debut going 2 innings giving up a run. He was able to keep the ball down but gave up a couple hits and a walk.
• A late rally by the Blue Jays almost brought the game to extra innings but it was too little too late.

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