New York Yankees

The New York Yankees have lost the opening game of a three-game set against the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2 at the Rogers Centre. 

  • New York Yankees: 2 (24-26)
  • Toronto Blue Jays: 4 (27-26)
  • American League, FINAL, Box Score
  • Rogers Centre, Toronto, Canada
It’s never breaking the news that the 2016 New York Yankees struggle to manufacture runs and that’s exactly what the supposed Bronx “Bombers” did on Monday night against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Coming off an outing in which they scored two runs on one lone hit for the first time since 1914, the Yankees were held to three hits by Marco Estrada and totaled five hits including a two-run home run by Brian McCann off Aaron Loup in the ninth.

Estrada totaled eight shutout innings and managed to toss his seventh consecutive quality start which features a win against New York from a week ago.

The Yankees got an average start from Ivan Nova as he went six innings and surrendered four runs on eight hits while striking out four. His season ERA is at 3.98 but still owns a 2.74 ERA and a 1.087 WHIP compared to his 5.14 ERA and 1.214 WHIP as the team’s long man.

The scoring got started for the Jays in the bottom of the first when Edwin Encarnacion doubled home the reigning American League MVP, Josh Donaldson to give Toronto an early 1-0 lead.


Two innings later, Encarnacion earned himself an RBI groundout to Didi Gregorius to score Ryan Goins but the big blow of that inning was when Michael Saunders ripped an RBI double to centerfield to score Jose Bautista.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Goins absolutely crushed his third home run of the season the opposite way off Nova to extend the Blue Jays lead to 4-0. Unfortunately, for the Yankees, that’s all their divisional foe would need to walk away with a win.

That was the second time this season that Goins registered two extra-base hits in the same game. When was the original? On April 13, against the Yankees. 


It seemed as if New York was going to go down via shutout for the fourth time this season, but alternatively, McCan lifted seventh home run of the season into center field to put the Yanks on the board to narrow the deficit and make it a 4-2 ballgame.


That would be all she wrote in terms of runs scored in this one for them as Drew Storen came in and closed a 4-2 win for the Blue Jays.

Monday’s winning effort was the 11th win in the last 15 games against the Yankees for the Blue Jays. New York has won eight of their last 12 ballgames but have cooled off recently as they have dropped four of their last six and discover themselves only one game removed from the last place in the American League East.

Once Again… Off The Mark: 

When is Mark Teixeira ever going to break out?

Although he doubled with one out in the ninth off Storen, the Yankees’ first baseman went 1-for-4 and watched his batting average fall to .195. Worst of all: he’s experiencing a power outage and I’m starting to worry about when the generator is going to kick in.

He hasn’t hit a home run in 129 at-bats, way longer than his longest desiccation of his career. His last dinger came on April 13 at the Rogers Centre.

Welcome To The Show:

Reliever Richard Bleier made his major league debut on Monday ninth at age 29. The southpaw has labored through nine years in the minor leagues in the Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals organizations.

In 249 total games in the minors, Bleier owns a 57-60 record with a 3.97 ERA featuring over 500 strikeouts. Last night, he recorded the final two outs in the eighth inning.

What’s Next?

The Yankees are hoping to make their second trip to the Rogers Centre a winning one and in order to do just that, they’ll need a victory on Tuesday night.

The resurgence of CC Sabathia will continue tomorrow as he takes the hill opposing J.A. Happ.

Last time out against the Jays at Yankee Stadium, the big lefty did not authorize an earned run over seven innings of work while only surrendering two hits and striking out seven.

Happ has lasted at least seven innings and yielded three hits or fewer in each of his last two outings. Against the Bombers, he owns a 5-2 record with 7.3 strikeouts per nine innings but has allowed 11 home runs, the most he’s allowed to any team faced.

When the Yankees announce the lineups, pay attention to see if manager Joe Girardi gives Alex Rodriguez a second consecutive day off. Why? Because it would be interesting to see if he rests him two days in a row against a lefty, and troublesome to give him the starting nod against a pitcher in which he is 0-for-14 against.

First pitch will come our way at 7:07 PM ET and you may catch all of the action on the YES Network from six o’clock.

NEXT: The Case For Potential New York Yankees All-Stars