Playing north of the border, the New York Yankees battled their AL East foes, the Toronto Blue Jays. Posting a two-game sweep, New York improved to a season-high watermark of 22-games above .500, at 40-18.
GAME 1
After Jordan Montgomery was ruled out for the season with Tommy John surgery, CC Sabathia gave the Yankees rotation a huge pick me up with his impressive and lengthy outing. New York also received a couple of huge timely hits in a 7-2 win which saw both teams earn their runs via the longball.
SABATHIA SHARP
As mentioned, Sabathia was economical with 89 pitches in seven frames. The veteran lefty fanned six, yielding three hits, one walk and two runs on solo home runs by Teoscar Hernandez in the sixth and Kevin Pillar in the seventh.
GRAND SLAMDUJAR
Trailing 1-0 with the bases packed in the seventh, Miguel Andujar deposited his first career grand slam to left off a first-pitch cutter from reliever Seunghwan Oh. The launch provided the Bronx Bombers with a 4-1 advantage, joining Horace Clarke (1965) and Mike Pagliarulo (1984) as Yankees’ rookie third basemen with a grand slam.
A-A-RON KNOCKS AARON FOR A LOUP
Facing Aaron Loup during the eighth, the hot-hitting Aaron Hicks all but put the game out of reach. With two on and two out, Hicks hammered a 2-2 two-seam fastball to right, an opposite-field shot, making the score 7-2.
GAME 2
The miniseries finale featured a sharp outing by Sonny Gray and some extra-inning thunderclaps from Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. It all added up to a 3-0 Yankees victory in 13 innings.
ROAD GRAY
Gray cashed in his third consecutive solid road start and perhaps his finest outing as a Yankee. Gray spun eight scoreless frames, fanning eight while yielding two hits and two walks. The Yankees starter also coaxed a pair of double-play balls, getting himself out of jams, was pumped on the mound and rightfully so.
ALL RISE NORTH OF THE BORDER
Judge was as persistent as his young Yankee fan friend in the outfield stands. If you didn’t watch or see it on social media, a young Yankee fan caught a ball hit in batting practice by Judge and during the game held up an “All Rise” sign every time the slugger came to bat.
Feel good story of the night pic.twitter.com/ssTKLSBSNd
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) June 7, 2018
During the 13th, Judge connected on a two-run blast to center off a 1-2 curveball from Joe Biagini. Judge’s No. 17 home run on the campaign made it 2-0.
#AllRise x #StantonSmash pic.twitter.com/5brGpXBCRK
— MLB (@MLB) June 7, 2018
STANTONIAN LASER
Later in the inning, Stanton scorched a 119.3 mph laser at a 15-degree launch angle for good measure and made it 3-0.
Giancarlo Stanton blasts a 119.3 mph LASER for the hardest-hit home run of the season! pic.twitter.com/WihJ8YkHZk
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) June 7, 2018
UNSUNG BULLPEN
It was heat and hooks from the Yankees’ bullpen arms. Chad Green dialed it up around 97 mph with two K’s in his two scoreless frames. Dellin Betances rang up 100 mph on the gun in his one scoreless frame with two K’s. David Robertson dropped the okey-doke on the Jays with two K’s in one scoreless inning. Aroldis Chapman would close it all out.
ON DECK
At 40-18, the Yankees travel to Flushing Queens and take on the New York Mets in a three-game series starting Friday.
Pitching probables, Masahiro Tanaka vs. Jacob deGrom, Domingo German vs. Steven Matz, Luis Severino vs. Noah Syndergaard.
