Blue Jays bats nowhere to be found in loss to Yankees

The Toronto Blue Jays offence was smothered in a 6-0 loss to the New York Yankees on Tuesday night.

R.A. Dickey did look fairly strong despite allowing four earned runs over six and two-thirds innings on five hits. Dickey was working his hard knuckleball regularly, striking out seven batters.

Joe Biagini entered with two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh and allowed an RBI infield single to Jacoby Ellsbury. Jesse Chavez was tagged with two runs against in the eighth before Pat Venditte cleaned up with the final two outs.

Yankees starter Nathan Eovaldi pitched an excellent game, allowing just two hits over six innings of shutout ball. Eovaldi walked three batters, but with five strikeouts and nine ground ball outs he was able to hold off any serious threat.

Toronto then ran into Dellin Betances, Kirby Yates, and Chasen Shreve, who combined to pitch three hitless innings.

After stealing a base in the seventh inning, Troy Tulowitzki left the game with an injury. Second baseman Darwin Barney had been pinch-hit for in that same inning, so the Blue Jays took the field in the bottom half with a middle infield of Ryan Goins and Russell Martin.

Ellsbury led the game off for New York with a triple and scored on a fielder’s choice. Ellsbury’s triple was hit in Bautista’s direction, but Bautista’s dive fell short and the ball rolled to the wall. Carlos Beltran put the Yankees up 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth with his 10th home run of the season.

Barney received the initial start over Goins at second base with a right-hander on the mound, and it appears that he’s overtaken the starter’s role for the time being. If Tulowitzki’s injury is anything beyond day-to-day, however, Devon Travis‘ timeline could be accelerated.

Aaron Sanchez is scheduled to face Ivan Nova tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. Eastern Time in game two of the series.