Lourdes Gurriel Jr Drives in Three in Major League Debut, Powers Jays to Win

Blue Jays: 8 Sith: 5

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. did everything we could have asked him to in his big league debut. He was 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs. There were a fair share of concerns over his defense during all the call-up coverage today, but we didn’t see any of that tonight.

The Blue Jays had runners on base all night, leaving 10 on despite scoring eight runs. They were 4-for-11 with RISP.

The Jays threatened in the 2nd, putting two on but couldn’t bring them around. In the 3rd, Curtis Granderson walked and Teoscar Hernandez briefly tied the game with a 419 foot homer. Buck and Pat were amazed at how good Hernandez’s plate discipline has become. He had some really good at bats tonight.

The Jays scored another three runs in the 4th. Russell Martin doubled, and Kendrys Morales cashed him in with a ground rule double. Kevin Pillar followed it up with a single, and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Gurriel Jr picked an optimal time for his first major league hit and drove them both home with an RBI single. A walk to Curtis Granderson later and Sonny Gray was done for the day. New reliever Domingo German walked Teoscar Hernandez but got Justin Smoak and Yangervis Solarte to fly out to end the inning.

The Blue Jays took a lead they wouldn’t surrender in the 5th. Martin walked to lead off the inning, and Morales singled him to second. They both advanced on yet another passed ball, and a walk to Aledmys Diaz loaded the bases. Hero of the day Lourdes Gurriel Jr singled home the go ahead run, and Teoscar Hernandez took a bases loaded walk to force in another. German and Gary Sanchez had a fair amount of miscommunication this inning, as they both often looked confused and often got crossed up. They used up three mound visits, leaving the Yankees with only 2.

For good measure, Solarte tacked on another run with a lead off homer courtesy of Adam Warren in the sixth.

Marco Estrada pitched better than his line would indicate. He went five innings, had seven hits, five earned runs, just one walk and four strikeouts. All his earned runs came via the home run.

He gave up his first two runs in the 2nd, on a walk to Aaron Hicks and then a 352 foot fly ball to right field by Tyler Austin that would only be a homer at Yankee Stadium. Tyler Austin has hit 3 homers this year, and they all came off Marco Estrada. Estrada left the second inning at 48 pitches (13 of them solely to Ronald Torreyes).

Estrada allowed another two runs in the 3rd, on a Didi Gregorius bloop to center field and a 375 ft homer off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton. That was the first hard hit ball off of Estrada, and it sadly snapped a streak of 50 straight at bats without a homer for Stanton. He gave up a third game tying homer in the fourth to Miguel Andujar, which also just went over the fence. Prior to the Andujar homer, Lourdes Gurriel Jr helped to turn a very close double play at second, which kept that home run a solo shot.

Seung Hwan Oh pitched the 6th and allowed only a single to Tyler Austin. A good inning from him was appreciated. Danny Barnes took the 7th, allowing a soft hit to Andujar, then retired the top of the Yankees order in a row. His fastball was particularly impressive and had a nice rise to it.

The 8th was of course handed to Ryan Tepera, and he too only gave up a bloop single, this time to Aaron Hicks. Roberto Osuna pitched the 9th, only giving up a single on a ball bobbled by Solarte.

A very nice win indeed.

Jays of the Day: Teoscar Hernandez (.316), Lourdes Gurriel Jr (.208), Russell Martin (.123), and Kendrys Morales (.144)

Suckage: Marco Estrada (-.273), Justin Smoak (-.149) and Aledmys Diaz (-.122)

We had 1298 comments in the GameThread. DangYouToHeck led us to victory once again.

The Blue Jays will try to ensure a series split tomorrow. Marcus Stroman will take on lefty Jordan Montgomery at 1:05pm ET.