Toronto Blue Jays 3 — New York Yankees 4
The Yankees benefited from a poor bullpen outing in tonight’s win.
Michael Pineda made his first start of the season and through the first two innings, he was dominant. A weak single started the third inning. Justin Smoak would follow with a double and Devon Travis would put the Blue Jays on the board first with a run-scoring single. Pineda would minimize the damage with a fly out with a pair of strikeouts.
Through the first three innings, the Yankees could not figure out the knuckleball pitcher, R.A. Dickey.
In the first inning, Jacoby Ellsbury started with a walk but would be picked off. In the second inning, Mark Teixeira led off with a double but was stranded. In the third inning, a pair of two-out walks would be wasted. The Yankees had three innings and three wasted opportunities.
In the fifth inning, Pineda gave up a one-out single to Devon Travis. Jose Reyes followed with a single of his own past Mark Teixeira at first base. In the hurry to prevent the ball from reaching the outfield, Stephen Drew would field it and a poor throw in attempt to keep Travis from third base would allow Reyes to advance, putting two in scoring position after the error. This error by Drew would be costly when Russell Martin hit a sacrifice fly to right field.
In the sixth inning, the Yankees would get on the board. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single. He would steal his first base of the season and advanced to third on a ground out and Carlos Beltran would hit a sacrifice fly to center field, deep enough to give the Yankees a run.
In six innings, Michael Pineda allowed two runs on six hits while walking one and striking out six. Michael Pineda pitched a very strong game but the offense did not come out for him.
After a strong seventh inning by Chris Martin; Dellin Betances made his 2015 debut in the eighth inning. After getting one out, Jose Bautista would walk and Edwin Encarnacion hit a single to put runners on the corners. During the Josh Donaldson at-bat, Brian McCann would make a costly throwing error when he tried to keep Encarnacion close. The throw would go into right field and the Blue Jays scored their third run of the game. Overall, Dellin Betances allowed one unearned run on one hit with two walks and no strikeouts. He threw 32 pitches and did not record a strikeout, highly unusual outing from Betances.
For the Blue Jays, R.A. Dickey allowed one run on four hits in 6 1/3 innings. The bullpen would try to keep the lead for one of the veterans of their staff.
Aaron Loup started the eighth inning for the Blue Jays and in response, Chris Young would come off the bench in a pinch-hit opportunity. Young would hit a hustle double on a shallow fly ball to the right field line. Jacoby Ellsbury would hit a single to center field and the Blue Jays bullpen would begin to collapse. Brett Gardner would be hit by a pitch on the hand, loading the bases with no outs. Closer Brett Cecil would be called on in the big situation.
A wild pitch would bring in the Yankees second run of the game. Carlos Beltran would strike out and Cecil intentionally walked Mark Teixeira to load the bases and have a force out at every base. Brian McCann would be the second batter hit in the inning but this would tie the game. Chase Headley would hit the go-ahead run on a single deflected off the glove of the pitcher Cecil.
Andrew Miller would come on for his first attempt at closing for the Yankees. He would get a pair of ground outs around a strikeout and just like that, the Yankees notched the first win of the season.
Win – Dellin Betances (1-0)
Loss – Aaron Loup (0-1)
Save – Andrew Miller (1)
Notables
Blue Jays
*Devon Travis – 2 for 4, R, RBI (2)
*Kevin Pillar – 1 for 4, R
Yankees
*Chris Young – 1 for 1, R, 2B
*Chase Headley – 2 for 4, RBI (1)
Current Yankees Record: 1-1
