Yankees Game 136: Ellsbury, Austin back Tanaka in Labor Day Yankees win

Jacoby Ellsbury & Tyler Austin fueled the offense to support Masahiro Tanaka in today's New York Yankees win.

Toronto Blue Jays 3 – New York Yankees 5

After an unsuccessful road trip, the Yankees return home against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Masahiro Tanaka had a shaky start to his start today. Devon Travis opened the game with a double to left field and came around to score on a single by Jose Bautista. After a line out, Edwin Encarnacion put runners on the corners with a single. Bautista made a mistake on the bases when he was caught off of third base on the ground ball by Michael Saunders. Tanaka escaped the inning with just one run scoring and the offense came to bat against R.A. Dickey.

In the bottom of the first inning, Brett Gardner led off with a single and Jacoby Ellsbury erased the deficit when he returned to the lineup with a bang. The two-run home run to right field put the Yankees ahead. In the third inning, Jacoby Ellsbury continued single-handedly defeating the Blue Jays. After a double by Tyler Austin, Ellsbury brought him home with a single to right that gave the Yankees a two-run lead.

In the fourth inning, Masahiro Tanaka was assisted by his defense when Gary Sanchez threw Melvin Upton out trying to steal second base. In the fifth inning, Jose Bautista walked with one out. With two outs, Edwin Encarnacion hit a ground ball down the left field line. Brett Gardner fielded the carom off the wall in foul territory and made a throw to third to catch Bautista attempting to advance to third on the base hit.

The Yankees added runs with two-out offense from the rookie, Tyler Austin. With two on and two out, Austin hit a ball off the wall in left center field that extended the Yankees lead to four.

Masahiro Tanaka pitched a scoreless sixth inning. In the seventh inning, pinch-hitter Ezequiel Carrera walked and former Yankee Dioner Navarro missed a home run by inches when the tall right fielder Aaron Judge robbed him with a standing catch against the wall. But the deep fly out was enough to remove Tanaka from the game. Rookie Jonathan Holder was brought in and got Devon Travis for the second out but walks of Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson loaded the bases, bringing the potential tying run to the plate. Another rookie, Ben Heller, was given the tall task with the bases loaded. Edwin Encarnacion made it a two-run game with a two-run single to right field and that was the end of his appearance in today's game. Tommy Layne came on to face pinch-hitter Russell Martin and the former Yankee catcher popped out softly to Starlin Castro to keep the Yankees lead at two.

In 6 1/3 innings, Masahiro Tanaka allowed two runs on seven hits with three walks and four strikeouts. He didn't have his best stuff today and was seeing some hard hit balls but he grinded it out to get deep into today's game.

After the pieced together seventh inning, the Yankees turned to reliable veterans to lock down today's win. Tyler Clippard pitched a perfect eighth inning with one strikeout and Dellin Betances pitched a perfect ninth inning with two strikeouts.

Win – Masahiro Tanaka(12-4)

Loss – R.A. Dickey (9-14)

Save – Dellin Betances (9)

Notables

Blue Jays

*Edwin Encarnacion – 3 for 4, 2 RBI (110)

*Jose Bautista – 1 for 3, R, 2 BB, RBI (54)

Yankees

*Jacoby Ellsbury – 3 for 4, R, Two-run home run (7) in the 1st, 3 RBI (49)

*Tyler Austin – 2 for 3, R, 2 2B, 2 RBI (4)

Current Yankees Record: 71-65