Pineda Throws Eight Scoreless Innings, Blue Jays Fall To Yankees

Three straight hits to start the game gave the Yankees an early 2-0 lead, which was more than enough for a dominant Michael Pineda. The Yankees went on to score four more en route to a 6-3 victory, shutting out the Blue Jays until the bottom of the ninth.

Marco Estrada made his first start of the season for the Blue Jays, but failed to make it out of the fifth inning. As mentioned, he gave up two earned runs before recording an out. He did not allow another earned run until the fifth, when the last hitter he faced, Mark Teixeira, hit a two-run home run. On the bright side, Estrada did not issue a walk and seemed to look a little bit better than his line suggests.

On Offence:

• Devon Travis: 1 for 5, double, 3 groundouts, fly out.
• Josh Donaldson 0 for 4. Fly out, pop out, 2 groundouts.
• Russell Martin: 3 for 4. HR, two doubles, K. His ninth inning home run kept the Jays from being shut out. He now has a 162 wRC+ for the season.
• Edwin Encarnacion: 1 for 4. Single, fly out, groundout, K.
• Justin Smoak: 0 for 4. Line out, fly out, GIDP, K.
• Kevin Pillar: 0 for 3. BB, Ground out, fly out, foul out.
• Chris Colabello: 2 for 4. Double, Single, groundout, K. His defence cost the Jays a run in the second, when he over ran a pop fly in foul territory. Jacoby Ellsbury went on to immediately hit a two-out, RBI single.
• Ryan Goins: 1 for 4. Single, Groundout, fly out, K.
• Ezequiel Carrera: 0 for 2. BB, K, groundout.
• Jose Bautista: Pinch hit for Carrera in the ninth, drawing a walk.

Pitching:

• Marco Estrada: 4.2 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3K, 0 BB.
• Jeff Francis: 1.1 IP, 1 H. Gave up a lone single, before getting the next batter to ground into a double play.
• Steve Delabar: 1 IP, 1 BB. Threw a scoreless inning in his return. Induced two groundouts and a fly out around a two-out walk.
• Chad Jenkins: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 K, 1 BB. Struggled in the eighth inning before throwing a clean ninth.

No Blue Jay had the number, but I will give the Jay of the Day to Russell Martin. Having three extra base hits in four at bats makes him well deserving. Suckage goes to Marco Estrada (-.237), though he did not receive much run support tonight.

The rubber match of this series will go tomorrow, with Mark Buehrle up against C.C. Sabathia. I'm sure we will see some Blue Jays news by then, as Alex Anthopolous likes to make roster changes on every day that ends in Y.