Jays offence awakes as Jays stomp Yanks 7-2!

Blue Jays-7 Yankees-2

The Blue Jays started the game the way they left Tuesday night's, holding the Yankees offence scoreless until the 5th inning. It was then that the Yankees were able to capitalize with an Aaron Hicks groundout that scored Ronald Torreyes to tie the game, 1-1.

Getting his second start of the season, J.A Happ had a very J.A Happ night. He didn't astound anyone with his off-speed pitches, giving up seven hits over six innings pitched while allowing just one run, but he certainly gave the Jays a chance to win. If Happ is able to maintain even a portion of that potential over the year, the Jays are in for a real treat in the back of their rotation.

The Jays battled back in the home half of the inning as Justin Smoak and Ryan Goins scored on consecutive groundouts from Kevin Pillar and Josh Donaldson, making it 3-1.

Filling in to relieve Happ was Brett Cecil who made his second appearance in as many nights. In it, he rebuilt his confidence after Tuesday night's loss as he had a three up-three down, perfect inning while recording a strikeout. No doubt Wednesday's performance will be a building block for the team's top left-hander.

Drew Storen came on in relief of Cecil in the 8th and was acceptable at worst, allowing a solo home run to Mark Teixeira to make it 3-2, settling quickly to hold the Jays one-run lead.

The Jays added to their lead in the home-half of the 9th with back-to-back doubles from Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista, making it 4-2. Troy Tulowitzki added to the offence with an RBI single of his own, breaking out of the Grand Canyon sized slump that he was stuck in to start the season.

Despite going 0-for-2 on the night, even Russell Martin made progress in game two of the series, collecting just his first walk of the season while also driving in the Jays sixth run on a sacrifice-fly to centre-field. While it did very little to help his .077 batting average, he undoubtedly was seeing the ball better tonight, going deep into counts against the overpowering Michael Pineda.

Goins continued the onslaught in the 8th inning with his third hit of the game, this time an RBI single to centre-field, stretching the lead to 7-2. With such a lead, manager John Gibbons elected to go with newly promoted Pat Venditte to finish the game.

Venditte was quick and effective, pitching both left-handed and right-handed in his outing, as he retired the Yankees in order to force a rubber match tomorrow between Marcus Stroman and Nathan Eovaldi.