Toronto 10, NY Yankees 7
When: 4:05 PM ET, Saturday, September 12, 2015
Where: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York
Temperature:
74°
Umpires:
Home -
Brian Knight, 1B -
Chris Guccione, 2B -
Cory Blaser, 3B -
Joe West
Attendance:
46278
By The Sports Xchange
NEW YORK -- After more than eight hours of baseball and two more victories, members of the Toronto Blue Jays walked off the Yankee Stadium field and saluted a contingent of their fans who stuck out two slow-played games and a brief rain delay.
For the Blue Jays, the lengthy wait to get a pair of victories proved extremely worthwhile. But not so much for the hometown team
The Blue Jays moved 3 1/2 games ahead of the New York in the AL East by completing a doubleheader sweep with a 10-7 victory Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.
In the first game, Toronto scored four times in the top of the 11th inning to earn the win.
Not much of the announced crowd of 46,278 stuck around for the finish but many who did made their voices heard by cheering loudly for the Blue Jays and chanting "MVP" for third baseman Josh Donaldson.
"We heard our people out there, pretty cool," said Toronto manager John Gibbons, who also noted the crowd for the nightcap resembled the instructional league crowds.
"We've done that a few times since I've been here," said Blue Jays right-hander Mark Lowe, who pitched a perfect ninth for the save. "We travel so well. We got a whole country behind us right now, so we're playing for a lot."
Donaldson contributed an RBI single during a four-run seventh but others played big roles in Toronto's latest win.
Left fielder Ben Revere tied a season-high with four hits and drove in two runs. Right fielder Jose Bautista homered twice, drew one of three 11th-inning bases-loaded walks in the first game 9-5 victory and followed it up with an RBI double during a six-run second off right-hander Ivan Nova (6-8) and a run-scoring single in the four-run seventh.
Catcher Russell Martin, who homered twice Friday and drove in the go-ahead run in Game 1, added an RBI single that chased Nova and sent the Yankees deploying their bullpen much earlier than they hoped for.
The other runs came from the bottom of the order.
Shortstop Ryan Goins accounted for the first run of the night with an infield single and second baseman Cliff Pennington drove in the next two with a two-run home run.
Goins and Pennington were Toronto's double play combination for the nightcap because shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was injured in a collision with center fielder Kevin Pillar in the second inning Saturday afternoon.
"We were both going for the ball," Pillar said. "It was kind of hit in that area where we're both comfortable."
Losing Tulowitzki for at least a week and possibly more due to a small crack in his left shoulder and bruises in his upper back muscles were the only damper of the long day for Toronto, which beat the Yankees for the 10th time in 14 games and won its seventh straight in New York.
"It's got to be the longest day in baseball for any of us," Lowe said. "Between playing a doubleheader both of them being nine inning, rain delay, extra innings, you just throw in all the things going on, we did our best to stay focused, power through it and fortunately we came out with two 'Ws'.
While the Blue Jays waited through two lengthy games, right-hander Marcus Stroman waited six months to get back on the mound after a freak spring training knee injury. With several friends and family in the stands from nearby Suffolk County, Stroman retired the first 12 and took a no-hitter into the fifth.
He ended his first major league start in a year by allowing three runs and four hits in five innings. He threw 78 pitches and might have gone longer if not for a 33-minute rain delay before the bottom of the sixth.
"It just shows that everything paid off," Stroman said. "I couldn't be more happy (to get back)."
While Toronto scored double-digit runs for the 24th time, the Yankees were handed their fifth straight loss. Most of their offense came from left fielder Brett Gardner, who hit a three-run home run off Stroman in the fifth and another three-run shot off Jeff Francis in the eighth after Toronto took a 10-4 lead.
Nova had his worst start since returning from Tommy John surgery, allowing six runs and seven hits in 1 2/3 innings. His outing came shortly after the Yankees allowed four runs and five walks in the 11th inning of the opener.
"We swung the bats OK," New York manager Joe Girardi said. "We're scoring runs. We need to pitch better."
NOTES: For Game 2, the Yankees rested DH Alex Rodriguez and rookie 1B Greg Bird, and the Blue Jays sat SS Troy Tulowitzki and CF Kevin Pillar. Tulowitzki left the opener in the second inning with a cracked shoulder blade following a collision with Pillar. ... In the first game, the Blue Jays drew five walks in an inning for the first time since May 14, 2010, against the Texas Rangers. ... RHP Bryan Mitchell was the third Yankees pitcher in the last 25 years to give up at least three runs without allowing a hit. The others were RHP Shane Greene on April 24, 2014, at Boston and RHP Shawn Kelley on May 5, 2014, at the Los Angeles Angels.
Top Game Performances
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
Toronto
|
14 |
1 |
20 |
.341 |
17 |
7 |
10 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
NY Yankees
|
13 |
2 |
20 |
.325 |
21 |
6 |
7 |
2 |
0 |
0 |