Jays score 8 runs but lose to Yankees

Blue Jays 8 Yankees 10

That was fun for four innings. And then it wasn’t.

We got two runs in the first inning. Eric Sogard walked and scored on a double from Vlad Guerrero Jr. A Randal Grichuk single moved up Vlad and a Rowdy Tellez double scored him. We really should have had more than two runs out of the inning, but it was a good start.

Aaron Sanchez was good through 4 innings. He gave up a couple of hits and 3 walks, but also 4 strikeouts.

It turned bad in the fifth. A pair of 1-out singles were followed by an Aaron Hicks home run and we went from up by 2 to down by 1. Sanchez took a hard hit ground ball off the legs to start the inning, but it didn’t seem like it bothered him at the time.

The sixth inning was just terrible. A single followed by a double that went off Aaron’s glove and then off Freddy Galvis’ glove, and then into center field. I really thought Freddy should have been able to make the play and then was a little irritated that he didn’t chase the ball after. The ball stopped not that far away from him, but by the time Billy McKinney (there was another question, why was it McKinney picking it up, coming from right, not Grichuk coming from center on a ball directly behind second base) picked it up it was a double for Gleyber Torres.

There was a bit of bad luck after that, Gio Urshela rolled one about 20 feet down the first base line, not far enough for Vlad to make a play on, which scored one. Brett Gardner followed with a ground ball that we couldn’t quite make a double play one, scoring another. A single in front of Gurriel in left loaded the bases and that was it for Sanchez.

Derek Law came in and, well, was Derek Law. He went double, walk, strikeout and home run, to bring the count up to 7 runs in the inning.

Sean Reid-Foley followed, giving up a single and a walk before getting out of the inning. Reid had a pretty good seventh inning. In the 8th he got two outs, and gave up 2 walks, before Joe Biagini came in to get the last out. Sean went 2.0, allowed 2 hits, 3 walks, 0 runs with 2 strikeouts. I’d prefer him make the ‘Jackson’ start the next time around instead of having it be a full bullpen day.

We had a hit around top of the eighth to make a game of it again.

Gurriel started it off with a home run.

Singles by Cavan Biggio, Grichuk and Rowdy Tellez loaded the base and Galvis unloaded them hitting the ball a long way out of the park.

It was looking hopeful when Sogard and Vlad each reached on infield singles, bringing Gurriel up as the tying run, but he struck out. He started the inning with a home run, I hoped he could get us another.

We did have some offense. 14 hits. Vlad and Grichuk each had three. Gurriel, Tellez and Galvis each had two. The only Jays not to hit were McKinney and Luke Maile. McKinney did not have a good time against lefty CC Sabathia.

We had another chance in the 9th. Grichuk blooped one down the line in right, and with heads up running got to third base. Then Rowdy Tellez drove one hard to left field. Unfortunately left is deep in Yankees Stadium, and it was just a sac fly.

As it turned out the decision to go with Derek Law to replace Sanchez ended up costing us the game. We scored 8 runs. But since Law allowed 2 inherited runners to score, plus 3 of his own earned runs in that disaster of a 6th inning, 8 runs wasn’t enough

Add in that, I thought, Charlie left Sanchez in too long today. He threw 104 pitches, and looked tired in that 7 run inning. If he could have come out earlier, and if we could have gone to someone other than Law, it could have been a different game.

Jays of the Day: By the numbers it is Vlad (.119 WPA), but I’m giving one to Galvis too, because of the grand slam.

Suckage: Sanchez (-.324), Law (-.074), McKinney (-.149) and Biggio (-.091, for a 1 for 4, 1 k). I’ll mention Gurriel had a -.101 but that’s mostly for the strikeout to end the 8th inning, but he did start that inning with a home run. I’m not giving him the ‘award’. Oh, lets give one to Charlie for the bullpen decisions in the 6th.

We had 790 comments in the GameThread tonight. DangYouToHeck led us to defeat.