| Justin Turner scored twice and drove in a run in a losing effort as the Yankees held on to edge the Blue Jays 9-8 |
After a miraculous 3-0 shutout win to ruin the Yankees home opener thanks thanks to stellar pitching, a clutch pinch hit home run from Ernie Clement and two insurance runs off wild pitches in the 9th, the Blue Jays were looking for their 1st multi-game win streak and 1st series win of the season. Ace Kevin Gausman got the start with backup catcher Brian Serven behind the plate. Kevin Kiermaier was back in CF after being a late scratch yesterday due to lower back spasms.That put Daulton Varsho back in left field. Justin Turner was at the hot corner and Ernie Clement was at 2B. Daniel Vogelbach served as DH. Could the Blue Jays make it two straight wins and notch their 1st series win of the season? Here is tonight's game recap.
Game Highights:
- The Yankees opened the scoring in the bottom of the 1st as Aaron Judge hammered a 2-run bomb to left-center; also scoring Juan Soto
- A batter later, Giancarlo Stanton whacked a solo blast to the opposite field in right-center and just over the wall
- The Yankees added a run in the bottom of the 2nd on a sac fly by Gleyber torres that scored Anthony Volpe
- A batter later, Austin Wells scored on a wild pitch by Kevin Gausman
- Same batter, Soto singled home Oswaldo Cabrera
- Kevin Gausman pitching line: 1.1IP 4H 6R (5 earned) 2BB 0K 51 pitches (29 for strikes)
- The Blue jays got one back in the top of the 3rd on a sac fly by Justin Turner that scored Kevin Kiermaier.
- The Blue jays got one back in the top of the 4th on a fielder's choice hit by Kiermaier that scored Ernie Clement
- Clarke Schmidt pitching line: 4.1IP 6H 2R (both earned) 3BB 4K 91 pitches (58 for strikes)
- The Yankees added a pair of runs in the bottom of the 5th as Anthony Rizzo whacked a 2-run Jack just inside the right foul pole: also scoring Judge
- The Yankees added a run in the bottom of the 6th as Soto singled scoring Torres
- The Blue jays got one back in the top of the 7th as Vladimir Guerrero Jr smacked a solo blast to the opposite field in right-center
- Three batters later, Daniel Vogelbach doubled scoring Bo Bichette
- A batter later, Turner scored on a sac fly by Clement
- The Blue jays got one back in the top of the 9th as Davis Schneider doubled scoring Turner
- A batter later, Clement scored on a groundout hit by Alejandro Kirk
- A batter after that, Cavan Biggio singled home Schneider
- Clay Holmes got the last two outs for his 4th save of the season
- Final score: Yankees 9 Blue Jays 8
My Take:
- Kevin Gausman had a rough start tonight, giving up 6 runs (5 earned thanks to a wild pitch) on 4 hits while walking 2 and striking out none. The bigger concern has to be that his velocity was down a tick today. Gausman was going to be on a restricted pitch count tonight since he wasn't fully stretched out. Now the question has to be if he is healthy. There's no question the Blue Jays will monitor how he is feeling tomorrow. He had his pitching arm wrapped up between innings in the top of the 2nd. Then again, a lot of pitchers do that.
- The bullpen gave up three runs (all charged to mitch White) on 6 hits while walking 5 and striking out 5 over 6.2 innings. The Blue Jays may need to call someone up in case tomorrow's starter, Bowden Francis, struggles against an equally potent lineup to the one he faced in Houston.
- That was an encouraging effort by the offense that fell just short of coming all the way back in spite of the big hole the pitching put the Blue Jays in.
- Every Blue Jays starter except Daulton Varsho reached base at least once and all but Varsho and Brian Serven had at least one hit
- The Blue Jays were 4-17 with runners in scoring position
- Up next, the Blue Jays go for their first series win of the season. Bowden Francis starts against Yankees righty Luis Gil
