The New York Yankees were once again inept on offense, leading to a loss of both the game and the series by way of a 4-0 shut out at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays.
- New York Yankees 0 (60-53)
- Toronto Blue Jays 4 (54-60)
- W: Marco Estrada (5-7, 4.85 ERA)
- L: Sonny Gray (6-7, 3.39 ERA)
- AL, Final, Box Score
- Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Despite another quality outing by Sonny Gray, the Yankees were blanked by Marco Estrada and the Toronto Blue Jays in their 4-0 loss on Thursday.
The Yankees had plenty of chances to make some noise on Estrada, as they collected five hits and three walks off the righty during his seven innings of work. But once again, they were completely incapable of coming up with the big hit during the big moment. And as a result, now trail the Boston Red Sox by 4.5 games.
Highlights
While it was the Yankees defense— most notably the infield — that betrayed Gray in his first Yankee start, it was Gray himself that dug his own grave as the Blue Jays struck first in the bottom of the second.
Gray’s blues started when he served up a one out double to Ezequiel Carrera. As Carrera tried to lengthen his lead off second, Gray threw an errant pickoff throw into center to put the speedy Carrera on third. The throwing error immediately came back to haunt Gray as he got Ryan Goins to hit a dribbler back to the mound, where Gray unsuccessfully tried to get Carrera at the plate with a scoop-throw to Gary Sanchez.
While the run scored to give Toronto a 1-0 lead, it provided the backdrop for one of the weirdest rules in all of baseball: even though it was Gray’s error that led to Carrera scoring, the run still went down in the books as unearned. Somewhere, Greg Maddux is rolling his eyes.
Gray was also to blame for the Jays’ second run, although this one was of the earned variety.
In the bottom of the third, Gray allowed a one-out walk and a steal of second to Jose Bautista. The all-too-familiar sight of Josh Donaldson doing damage reared it’s ugly head yet again as the All-Star third baseman ripped a single into left that scored Bautista from second, making it a 2-0 ball game.
Then in the fourth, former Yankee Steve Pearce drilled a leadoff single to center and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Carrera. After a walk to Goins, Gray made a quality pitch to Kevin Pillar but was beaten at his own game as the center fielder slapped a single to left that brought in Pearce from second to extend Toronto’s lead to three.
Although Gray recorded his second consecutive quality start in pinstripes, the righty was pulled to begin the seventh. Gray was lifted for Chasen Shreve, departing with a final line of six inning, four hits, three runs (two earned), four walks and six strikeouts.
When it looked like Shreve was going to work his way to a scoreless seventh inning, the lefty left a 1-0 beach ball over the middle of the plate to Joey Bats, which resulted in the Jays extending their lead to four.
“Give me all of that.” – @JoeyBats19, definitely. ✌️ pic.twitter.com/lzY0NViAps
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 11, 2017
Although it was a no save situation, Jays closer Roberto Osuna came on in the ninth and closed the door on the Yankees hopes of a comeback.
What’s Next?
Only the biggest series of the 2017 season to date, as the Yankees head home in preparations of hosting a three game weekend set against the first place rival Red Sox.
The first of three features a battle of lefties, both seasoned and relatively inexperienced. Jaime Garcia (5-8, 4.49 ERA) gets the nod for New York, hoping to forget his debut outing in Cleveland and capture that all-important game one win. The youngster Eduardo Rodriguez (4-3, 4.08 ERA) takes the ball for Boston, with the intentions of pushing the Bombers farther back in the AL East standings. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 P.M. and can be seen on the YES Network and heard on WFAN 660/101.9 FM.
