NEW YORK – The palace that is Yankee Stadium reverberates with life. It’s a big, imposing place filled with loud music and louder people, typically the arrogant, obnoxious sort who make the joint boisterous and lots of fun. Fans of visiting teams best be prepared to catch some heat there.
Yet as the reality of a doubleheader sweep by the Toronto Blue Jays over the New York Yankees became more and more apparent as Saturday trudged along, even before a 33-minute rain delay, The House That George Built had none of its usual verve. The only people making noise were the pockets of Blue Jays fans scattered in the stands, determined to make their presence felt. On the field the Bronx Bombers looked deflated, demoralized.
The Yankees may not be vanquished yet, but after falling 9-5 in 11 innings in the opener and then watching Marcus Stroman lead the way with five strong innings in his season debut to claim the nightcap 10-7, control of the American League East now lies firmly in the Blue Jays’ hands.
“The first game was definitely a dogfight, whoever was going to win that game was going to carry the momentum into the second game for sure,” said Mark Lowe, who threw a clean sixth in that one and then picked up the save with a perfect ninth in the second. “It just shows the character of this team. Nobody ever gives up. Everybody in this clubhouse can contribute at any point in time in the game. That’s pretty special to have.”
The Blue Jays’ lead is a season-high 4.5 games, and they can extend it further when R.A. Dickey takes on Masahiro Tanaka in Sunday’s series finale. But Troy Tulowitzki suffered a small crack in his left shoulder blade and upper back muscle bruises during a collision with Kevin Pillar in the first game, and it’s unclear how much time he’ll miss.
In a release, the Blue Jays said their cornerstone shortstop “will be monitored closely over the next week to help determine a possible timeline for return,” and there’s no replacing him if he’s lost for long.
Add in that Edwin Encarnacion left the second game early when he re-aggravated the finger injury that sidelined him for two games at the end of July and four games in the middle of August while striking out in the sixth, and there was attrition for both teams in this one.
“I’m proud of these guys,” said manager John Gibbons. “It was a long-ass day, it wasn’t an easy day to play, the first one went extras, and they gutted it out.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi noted before the first game that beyond the standings, with doubleheaders “you worry about the effects that it has on your guys in the upcoming days.”
The Blue Jays used 11 relievers in the doubleheader but can catch their breath with a day off on Monday. The Yankees on the other hand used 10 relievers but don’t have an off-day until Thursday and with a rotation still in flux from the loss of Nathan Eovaldi are in tough to reset.
The Blue Jays secured the sweep by pounding Ivan Nova for six runs in a second inning the right-hander couldn’t escape – highlighted by Cliff Pennington’s two-run homer and an RBI single that gave Jose Bautista 100 RBIs – and after the Yankees cut the lead to 6-4, dropped another four-spot in the seventh to open things up again.
Stroman, returning from a torn ACL in his left knee suffered during spring training, didn’t allow a hit through four innings, gave up a couple of singles in the fifth on tough plays in the rain that Pennington and Josh Donaldson couldn’t make and then served up a three-run shot to Brett Gardner.
The right-hander was set to come back out for the sixth but then the rain delay hit, ending his night with three runs on four hits and two walks allowed in five innings. He struck out two and threw 78 pitches, 48 strikes after making just two rehab starts on his way back.
“Absolutely,” Stroman replied when asked if he was pleased with his stuff. “And it’s only going to get better from here. Really pleased. One bad pitch, I left a pitch up to Gardner, but for the most part I kept the ball on the ground, I threw it pretty well and most importantly did everything in my power to put this team in a position to win. This offence is incredible, I realize that, so I just tried to attack out there.”
Gardner hit a second three-run homer in the eighth, this one off Jeff Francis, to make it a 10-7 game, but Lowe, who told Gibbons after the first game he had another inning in him for the second, locked things down.
“It’s got to be the longest day of baseball for any of us,” said Lowe. “I felt fine. I didn’t ice, and stayed ready.”
A small group of Blue Jays fans applauded the team as they walked off the field.
“It actually felt like an Instructional League game,” Gibbons said of the nightcap. “Nobody there and you hear all the rags. We heard our people out there, it was pretty cool.”
Added Lowe: “We travel so well. We’ve got a whole country behind us right now. We’re playing for a lot.”
The Blue Jays won the opener thanks to a four-run outburst in the 11th fuelled by five walks, a hit by pitch and a single base hit.
Encarnacion started the decisive rally with a walk off Bryan Mitchell and was pinch-run for by Dalton Pompey. Pennington was hit by a pitch after fouling off two bunt attempts, Chris Colabello recovered from an 0-2 count to walk and after a Dioner Navarro strikeout, Russell Martin hit for Ryan Goins against Chasen Shreve and walked to bring in the go-ahead run.
After Pillar struck out, Ben Revere delivered an RBI single and Shreve walked both Donaldson and Bautista to bring in two more runs.
“Good at-bats, and guys doing what they do,” said Pennington. “It’s a tough lineup to pitch to, guys are making pitchers work, sometimes you get walks and hit by pitches that help get rallies started because they’re trying to be careful and not give you pitches to hit. If they’re having to pitch around you and be careful, you can start rallies in other ways.”
Liam Hendriks, who retired Dustin Ackley in a 10-pitch duel with the winning run at second in the 10th, allowed the first two batters to reach in the bottom of the 11th before Ryan Tepera closed things out for the save.
Runs were hard to come by early against Michael Pineda, who allowed just one hit through the first three innings as the Yankees built a 2-0 lead on solo shots by Gardner and Chase Headley off Marco Estrada.
But Bautista’s solo shot dunked in just over the short porch in right field in the fourth put them on the board, and after Alex Rodriguez’s two-run shot in the bottom half made it 4-1, the Blue Jays stormed back in the fifth as a rare Revere solo homer was followed by Encarnacion’s two-run drive that tied things up.
Encarnacion now has 99 RBIs, and his on-base streak is at 41 straight games.
Things stayed there until the eighth, when Bautista hammered a 99 mph fastball from Dellin Betances on a line to straight-away centre for his 35th homer of the season, and the first Blue Jays lead of the afternoon.
It didn’t last long.
Aaron Sanchez, coming back out for his second inning of work, walked Ellsbury and Gardner to open the bottom half, Brett Cecil took over, and after a inducing a pop up from Carlos Beltran, gave up an RBI single to Brian McCann.
In came Roberto Osuna, who walked Rodriguez to load the bases before getting Headley on a popper to second and Greg Bird on a wicked one-hopper to the 3-4 hole snared brilliantly by Pennington.
“Bird hammered it,” said Pennington. “Trying to read the hop as best I could, put glove in the way, you can’t say you catch it every time and it’s all skill, there was some luck involved, but you just see it and try to do the best you can.”
That was only the start of the drama on a day filled with it, one that ended with the series finale less than 15 hours away.