Russell Martin hits 2 home runs, Jays beat Yankees

Blue Jays 8 Yankees 4

Who says Canadians can't play baseball? Put down your hand Harold.

Russell Martin had 2 home runs (he came up about 5 feet short of a 3rd home run in the ninth, flying out to deep right center) and 3 RBI. Those were the first and second home runs of the season for Russell. I'm glad he got them before June. And Michael Saunders had a 2-run homer off lefty reliever Chasen Shreve.

That's the first time two Canadian teammates have homered in the same inning in MLB history.

The other offensive hero was, surprisingly, Ryan Goins, who had a 2-run double, in the 4th inning. And, man, did we ever need that hit. Before it, the Jays had left 4 runners on base in the first 3 inning.

Edwin Encarnacion singled home our 8th run in the top of the 8th inning.

That was a much better offensive game all around. We had 11 hits and 4 walks (I'll ignore the 8 strikeouts for the moment). Every one in the lineup hit, with Encarnacion and Martin having two hits each. Nice to see. Edwin got a lucky opposite field fly ball to fall, in the first inning, and that seemed to be just what he needed. He drew a nice walk in the 4th, then a not-so-happy strikeout in the 6th, but it was an 8-pitch at bat. Then a nice single down the right field line,scoring Jose Bautista,in the 8th.

Devon Travis was 1 for 4 (an infield single) with 2 strikeouts. He didn't look great, but then we've had lots of batters have bat games. He didn't have a lot of work at second base, but made the plays he had. I'm happy to think he was the good luck charm that got us hitting.

Marco Estrada didn't have a great game. He had some troubles with the strike zone (so did the home plate umprire,but Marco was missing the zone by a lot some of the time). But, through 6 innings, he only allowed 2 hits and 1 earned run. In the 7th he gave up back-to-back solo homers to start the inning, but righted things quick to get out of the inning.

Joe Biagini pitched a nice neat 3 up 3 down 8th (when was the last time we had a clean 8th inning),with 2 strikeouts.

Chad Girodo started the 9th. He gave up a lead off homer to right-handed pinch hitter Austin Romine (Girodo really hasn't done well against RHB). He got Chase Headley to ground out. That would be the only out he would get, a Didi Gregorius single prompted Gibby to bring in Roberto Osuna, even if it wasn't a save situation. Roberto got a strikeout and a fly out to end the game.

Jays of the Day: Estrada (.224 WPA), Goins (.213 off a 1 for 4, but the 1 drove in 2 runs) and Martin (.119).

Suckage: Justin Smoak came surprisingly close to the number, getting a -.097, despite a hard hit double, but he struck out to end the 1st inning with 2 runners on base. Since we won, I'm not giving him one.

I don't know about the Jays, but I needed that win. I was feeling pretty depressed about the team before the game.

We had 1036 comments in a much happier GameThread. Barraqudie led us to victory. Great job.