Yankees take first game in Bronx: Blue Jays fighting for their A.L. East lead

The Toronto Blue Jays got off to a hot start last night with Devon Travis’ 20th double of the season being driven in by a hot shot single by Jose Bautista in the first inning, putting pressure on the Yankees with the first two batters.

R.A. Dickey had a tough outing, going four innings and allowing five runs.  Dickey allowed one home run , a two-run homer to Jacoby Ellsbury which came in the first.  He did a good job of limiting his walks, only allowing one, and struck out five batters in his four innings of work.  Despite these seemingly good numbers, Dickey left after those four frames partly due to a balk in the 3rd when he was trying to catch Ellsbury off of first base, and also due in part to the two doubles he allowed – both coming courtesy of Austin Jackson.

Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka didn’t have his best stuff; however, he ground out his outing with the help of stellar defence behind him.  He managed to get into the seventh inning allowing only two runs, striking out four, and walking three.  It wasn’t until Tanaka left the game after 6.1 innings that the Jays broke through.

Toronto made some base running errors with the men they were able to get on base as Melvin Uptin Jr. was caught stealing for the first out in the fourth and Bautista was tagged out trying to go first to third in the fifth inning.  The Jays stranded eight men during the game, leaving eight potential runs standing harmlessly on base.

The Yankees threw out four different pitchers in the seventh inning and the Blue Jays retaliated with three pinch-hitters.  A the end of the manager’s chess match, Toronto came out on top with two runs.  Ezequiel Carrera, Jose Bautista, and Josh Donaldson were all walked to load the bases.  There’s no way to defend against a walk, and there was no way to defend against the two-run double that Edwin Encarnacion hit to drive in Carrera and Bautista.

In the end, the Yankees were victorious, taking the first game of the series 5-3.

Next up, Toronto’s Aaron Sanchez (2.88 ERA) takes on New York’s Luis Cessa (4.17 ERA) at 7:05 on Tuesday in the Bronx as the Blue Jays fight to stay on top of their division.