NEW YORK — The Toronto Blue Jays were a team in disarray when they last visited Yankee Stadium three weeks ago, their early season funk driving them to a dismal 1-6 road trip through Baltimore and the Bronx, a player’s only meeting called before the last game to try and stabilize things.
And while their season has since steadied — they returned to New York riding a season-best four-game win streak and with victories in seven of their past 10 outings — much heavy lifting remains, with Friday’s 5-0 loss to the American League East leaders only adding to the load.
Mark Buehrle was far better than his line of five runs over six-plus innings suggests, but he had no margin for error with Hiroki Kuroda stuffing an offence that scored 33 runs in its previous three outings.
“He’s had our number this year,” lamented manager John Gibbons, whose team has managed just four runs in 21.1 innings over three starts against the Japanese right-hander.
At least the lineup’s recent production and improved run of pitching means the Blue Jays won’t feel the same sense of crisis that existed when they were here last month, when DeRosa, Jose Bautista, R.A. Dickey and Darren Oliver addressed their teammates in the meeting.
“Oh my God, in all facets to be honest with you, really truly,” DeRosa said of how things have changed over the last three weeks. “When we were last here, it was pretty much rock bottom, we couldn’t do a lot of things positive, at-bats, pitching, defence, giving up extra outs, base-running mistakes – all facets were not good.
“I really think everything has changed and in turn the chemistry in the clubhouse and chemistry in the dugout has completely changed. Guys are swinging the bats, guys are coming through with big two-out knocks, R.A. struck out 10, we’ve gotten great spot-starts out of guys like Ramon (Ortiz) and (Chad) Jenkins. Everything has come together.”
The Yankees, who had lost two straight and placed Andy Pettitte on the 15-day disabled list before the game, interrupted that, and it’s up to the Blue Jays to respond over the weekend.
—
WHERE THINGS STAND: At the start of an important 10-game stretch against division rivals, the Blue Jays (17-25) fell to 1-7 against the Yankees (26-16) this season before a crowd of 40,008, and 8-16 versus the American League East. That intra-division gap is one they must close up to have any hope of contending.
“Oh yeah, you have to play well in your division, and to this point we really haven’t done that, especially against the Yanks,” said manager John Gibbons. “We have a little stretch here against those three teams. We have to play good. You can’t fall too far back.”
After this weekend, the Blue Jays return home for three games Tampa and four against Baltimore.
—
THE ARMS: Mark Buehrle’s pitching line reads far worse than how he performed, holding the Yankees to a pair of runs through six before surrendering a double to David Adams, infield single to Ichiro Suzuki and a double to Austin Romine in the seventh to end his night.
Reliever Aaron Loup couldn’t strand the runners, who came home on a Brett Gardner single past a diving Brett Lawrie and a Ben Francisco sacrifice fly, putting the game out of reach.
“If you look at it realistically, he was right in it until the end there, two runs going into that seventh inning,” said John Gibbons. “He was getting their better hitters out in the lineup, and the bottom of that lineup got us.”
Prior to that Buehrle kept the Yankees at bay, allowing a run in the first on Robinson Cano’s RBI groundout, and another in the fifth on a Jayson Nix sacrifice fly.
He wasn’t quite as crisp as he was last Saturday in Boston, when he threw seven innings of one-run ball, but deserved better in this one.
“In Boston I felt like I was getting ahead in the count, keeping the ball down, today not so much,” said Buehrle. “I was getting away with mistakes when I’m throwing pitches that earlier in the year were getting crushed. At times I am keeping the ball down, that’s my game, strike one and keeping the ball down.
“I can’t pinpoint a why from previous starts, I haven’t changed anything. I got out there between starts and do what I need to do to get ready for the next one.”
—
THE BATS: It was an auspicious start when Melky Cabrera led off the game with a double but the Blue Jays didn’t manage another base-runner against Hiroki Kuroda until Munenori Kawasaki’s one-out walk in the third (he was promptly picked off by his countryman) and another hit until the seventh when Edwin Encarnacion lined a ball to left.
In between Kuroda induced a steady diet of weak contact save for the fifth, when Adam Lind was robbed of a hit by a sprinting Vernon Wells to open the inning and Colby Rasmus had a hit taken away from him by the wall in centre by Brett Gardner.
Kuroda allowed just the two hits and one walk in eight dominant innings, striking out five as the Blue Jays were shutout for the fourth time this season.
“It was just Kuroda, he’s good,” said John Gibbons. “We got the leadoff double and you figure we’ll get something going in the first inning, we didn’t score him, they turn around, get that leadoff triple and they score. That game was tight to the later parts, but Kuroda was just real good.”
