It's 5-3 for the Yankees heading into the bottom of the ninth in Toronto with the best closer in baseball coming out of the bullpen for the Yanks. Game over right? Not this time!
Rivera came out for the save in the ninth and Yunel Escobar welcomed him to the game by smacking a double to centre field. Then came Snider, who after breaking his bat in frustration over his thigh after striking out earlier in the game, grounded out to second moving Escobar to third. Jose Bautista then drew a walk and Escobar scored on the wild pitch. Adam Lind then hit a Rivera offering into shallow centre field for a single, allowing Bautista to move to third. Then came Johnny Mac, who laid down a bunt which not only scored Bautista to tie the game, but got himself in to first base safely as well. Tie game 5-5, and a blown save for Mariano Rivera, his first of the year. That was all the damage Toronto would do in the ninth. Molina singled before Patterson grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Jon Rauch came on to pitch the top of the tenth for the Jays. He walked two but got the job done, giving the Jays a chance to win it in their half of the tenth.
Normally a starter, Ivan Nova was out to pitch for the Yankees in the tenth. With Encarnacion on first and two out, Travis Snider who was 0 for 5 on the day, and has a season avg. of just .153 tattooed a pitch to deep centre field for a double, scoring Encarnacion from first and giving the Jays a walk off win from the Yankees in extra innings.
I love watching the Yankees lose to any team, at any time. But a walk off loss against Toronto... easily my favorite way for them to lose.
If I could have hand picked someone to be the hero in last nights game, it would have been Snider. You could almost see the weight come off of his shoulders as the Jays were celebrating their walk off victory. Hopefully this was a turning point for him.
Drabek started the game for Toronto, and got through 5.1 innings throwing 93 pitches. He allowed 4 earned runs on 6 hits, striking out only 2, and walking 4. The pitching high point of the night for Toronto though came from the bullpen in the form of 3 and 1/3 innings of one-hit shutout relief by Marc Rzepczynski, Carlos Villanueva, Shawn Camp and Jon Rauch.
After a rough finish in Boston to a rough road trip, this was a great homecoming for the Jays.
Frank Francisco was activated from the DL yesterday, and Jesse Litsch was optioned to AAA Las Vegas. I don't really agree with this at all. I understand that Reyes is out of options, but Litsch has arguably been the third best starter for the Blue Jays so far this season. I would have much rather seen them send down Luis Perez and move Reyes to the bullpen. However I do see their point that they want to see what Reyes can do in the rotation. We have played this game before (remember Dana Eveland?). I suspect Perez will be the one to go when Morrow is activated from the DL, unless of course something happens with Juan Rivera.
Tonight it's Brett Cecil and Bartolo Colon as the Jays try to sweep this mini set with the Evil Empire. Then Friday, Tampa Bay comes in to town and I will finally be making the trip to the rogers centre for the first time this season. It will be my second MLB game this year, but first Blue Jays game. I'm looking forward to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment