TORONTO – The kind of spectacular defensive plays made by Kevin Pillar to end the fourth inning and by Darwin Barney to wrap up the eighth – both GIF-worthy stuff – are almost to be expected from the gifted fielders. Stealing hits without remorse is their thing. They’re rather good at it.
When that defensive prowess gets paired with timely hits, the type each delivered in a three-run seventh inning Tuesday that toppled the New York Yankees 4-1, then the Toronto Blue Jays suddenly become a far more complete offensive club, the type they must be to defend their AL East championship.
The bottom of the lineup isn’t necessarily where you’d expect the knockout punch against Dellin Betances to come from. But employing a smart approach reminiscent of the one they used against Aroldis Chapman in the Bronx last week, Pillar and Barney sure socked the dominant right-hander, securing the Blue Jays’ fifth straight series win over the Yankees.
“When guys throw that hard, you’ve really got to simplify some things, you’ve just got to get the bat head to the ball somehow,” said manager John Gibbons. “If your swing gets long and you’re in pull mode, you really have no chance against (Betances) so take advantage, shoot the ball the other way, that’s what both of them did. We took advantage of it.”
That they did and the Blue Jays (28-26) have now won four straight overall, improving to 9-3 over that stretch. Aaron Sanchez starts against Masahiro Tanaka in Wednesday’s series finale when they’ll try to climb three games above .500 for the first time this year.
Edwin Encarnacion started the decisive rally with a laser double off CC Sabathia to bring in Betances, who recorded two straight outs, one a stinging Russell Martin liner to the track, before Devon Travis walked on four pitches and Pillar shot a 97 mph heater to right to break a 1-1 tie.
“You’re just trying to see the ball for as long as possible before making a decision and for us it’s about staying short, getting our foot down and using the whole field,” said Pillar. “It really started with Devon with the walk and then myself and Barney, we were all guys that faced Chapman in New York. We saw that type of velocity and we all had success going the other way so it didn’t make sense to change it.”
Cleverly, Pillar stole second when Betances ignored him and with the count 1-2, Barney poked a breaking ball to right field that provided some comfort with a 4-1 lead.
“The first time I faced (Betances) was in New York and he made me look pretty stupid,” said Barney. “He’s a guy that you have to really trust your approach pitch to pitch, he’s one of the best in the game, you try to not do too much, just go up there, try and play pepper, get something off the barrel. Every time you step out of that box, you’ve got to rethink your ideas about what he’s trying to do to you. I was pretty lucky to find some barrel there.”
Jesse Chavez followed a scoreless inning of relief by Joe Biagini with a clean eighth, capped when Barney ranged far down the right-field line and slid into the fence as he snared Carlos Beltran’s foul popper. That bridged the gap to Roberto Osuna, who allowed a single but nothing else to collect his 12th save.
“When a guy hits a foul ball, I try and pick a spot in the stands where I think it’s going to land,” said Barney. “Right off the bat there my read was it’s going to stay in play, so I honestly didn’t peak at the wall, I just tried to make the catch and trust my instinct and luckily I didn’t blow up my knee or something.”
Pillar’s gem robbed Austin Romine in the fourth, charging hard to his left on a fading liner and laying out to snare it in the tip of his glove.
As the announced crowd of 33,419 stood and applauded, J.A. Happ waited for him by the dugout to offer his personal thanks.
“Off the bat as I watched it, I thought there was no chance that ball was going to be caught,” said Happ. “Then he covered the ground and somehow caught it. That’s just a great feeling for me, but for our team, too, getting us back in the dugout.”
Happ, who beat the Yankees 2-1 with seven innings of one-run ball five days ago, allowed a run on four hits and two walks in six innings in taking a no-decision. The Yankees only managed an Aaron Hicks run-scoring fielder’s choice in the second when the left-fielder sped up the line to avoid an inning-ending double play.
Still, they ran him up to 97 pitches, the grind of the first two innings keeping him from getting deeper.
“In the past some of those games definitely got away from me,” said Happ. “I just tried to slow myself down, trying different things out there, had a couple of long innings early in the game but I still never got to the point where I felt as sharp as I’d like. But I was able to make some pitches behind in the count and get myself back in there.”
Sabathia held the top of the Blue Jays order to two hits, with only the Encarnacion double in the seventh hurting him. Justin Smoak ripped his fifth homer of the season with two out in the fourth to tie things up.
The Blue Jays managed precious little else against the Yankees, but when Pillar and Barney made sure the one window of opportunity they did get didn’t go to waste.
