New York Yankees Fan Blog

Yankees Lose Two Out of Three to the Blue Jays

When it comes to facing teams with a winning record the Yankees have been having some trouble. The same was true this weekend when they lost two out of three to the Toronto Blue Jays who have move within two and a half games behind the Yankees and are tied with the Boston Red Sox for third place in the division.
On Friday night Burnett had a rough outing facing his old team. Burnett was charged with all six runs scored by the Blue Jays. Burnett’s undoing came with his usual suspect, the long ball. Burnett let up three home runs in six innings pitched. Usually when Burnett struggles he gets hammered and again that was the case. The Blue Jays are leading the lead in home runs and they weren’t afraid to show their home run power on Burnett’s mistakes.
On the other side, the Yankees only scored one run against the Blue Jays starter, Brett Cecil. Cecil mixed up his pitches well and kept the Yankees off balance. Cecil became the first pitcher to go eight innings against the Yankees all year.
The Yankees wound up losing 6-1, it was a wake up call for the Yankees who just faced easy competition in the Orioles who were swept by the Yankees.
Saturday afternoon the Yankees had Andy Pettite on the hill and he pitched a gem. Pettite went seven and two-thirds innings striking out 10 batters and allowing two runs on two solo home runs. That should have been enough for the Yankees to win the game, they average 4.5 runs a game on the road. That wasn’t the case though, the Yankees were abysmal at the plate matching the Blue Jays with two runs thanks to Derek Jeter’s two run blast in the fifth inning.
The Yankees wound up striking out 14 times in 14 innings, with the strikeout leader being Mark Teixeira with five. Ricky Romero matched Pettite with a solid eight innings pitched and seven strikeouts. With the lack of offense the game remained tied for 14 innings when the Yankees bullpen couldn’t handle any more. Chad Gaudin recently re-acquired from the Oakland Athletics let up the winning run on an Aaron Hill line drive to center that scored Fred Lewis from second.
Game three of the series was another close game with solid pitching performances from Javier Vazquez and Brandon Morrow. The biggest story of the game was Vazquez who has made it back to his old form and keeps getting better and better from start to start.
Vazquez had a no-hitter going through the first five innings of the game. His only mistake came in the sixth inning when he let up a two run home run to the resurgent Vernon Wells. Vazquez wound up going seven innings with nine strikeouts and only allowing the two runs from Wells.
On the other side, the Yankees were held scoreless for the first seven innings against stellar pitching by Morrow who struck out eight Yankees. It looked like Vazquez who hasn’t been getting any run support all year, may have another tough loss. That wasn’t the case though because the Yankees finally woke up in the eighth inning on relief pitchers Scott Downs and Jason Frasor. The Yankees scored four runs that inning when Francisco Cervelli and Brett Gardner led off the inning by both getting hit by pitches. Jeter then hit a line drive double to score Cervelli. Then there were some fireworks when Nick Swisher was called out on a check swing that he clearly held up on. Giradi came out to argue and was thrown out of the game by the home plate umpire. Giradi may have done that to fie up his team and win the game and it worked.
Teixeira was up next and was intentionally walked. The Blue Jays wanted to set up the double play with Alex Rodriguez coming up. With Rodriguez down 0-2 in the count Frasor threw a wild pitch that allowed Gardner to score. Rodriguez eventually struck out, but no worries the Yankees best hitter of the season was up next, Robinson Cano, Once again he came through with a two run double to give the Yankees the lead which they never surrendered.
Joba Chamberlin came in to pitch the eight allowing one run to score making the game 4-3 Yankees. Then Mariano Rivera came in for his easiest save of the season. Rivera only had to throw five pitches to record his 13th save of the season.
At least the Yankees salvaged the last game of the series to boost their momentum for another easy stretch of schedule this week with the Orioles and Astros. Phil Hughes will take the hill tomorrow night against the Orioles where he looks to get a team leading 8 wins for the season. (yankees.com)

By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network

June 7, 2010 Posted by homerunheyer | A.J. Burnett, Blogger, Derek Jeter, Eric Heyer, Javier Vazquez, Joba Chamberlain, MLB, Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees, Nick Swisher, Original Content, Robinson Cano | AJ Burnett, Andy Pettite, Blue Jays, Javier Vazquez, MLB, Yankees | No Comments Yet