Yankees 5 Blue Jays 8
A FOUR GAME SWEEP!
THE JAYS ARE IN FIRST PLACE!
The bottom of the eighth had a huge moment. Chad Green was in after getting the last two outs in the seventh. Green got a strikeout of Trent Grisham and a fairly deep flyout by Ben Rice. Then John Schneider decided to intentionally walk Aaron Judge, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate.
Then he brought in lefty Justin Bruihl to pitch to Cody Bellinger. Bellinger has been crushing lefties this year, with a 1.035 OPS against them (only 92 at-bats). And Bruihl has only pitched three innings for the Jays. He pitched to a full count, got a foul ball and then threw a pitch inside, hitting Bellinger, but Bellinger had swung at the pitch (pretty close call on a checked swing). A huge at bat.
Then, in the bottom of the inning, with two outs, Nathan Lukes singled and George Springer homered, yet again, and suddenly we had a three-run lead. Springer had a fantastic series.
Chris Bassitt gutted out his start today. He gave up a run in the third and two more in the fourth, but made it through 5.2 innings and left with a 6-3 lead.
In that sixth inning, he got Austin Wells to strikeout on six pitches and Oswald Peraza on seven pitches. John pulled him after a Trent Grisham walk on a full count after 113 pitches. He allowed eight hits, with three walks and nine strikeouts. He battled every inning.
We scored:
- One in the first: Springer walked, and Addison Barger doubled him home. Great running from Springer to score from first
- Two in the third: Lukes doubled and Springer hit his first home run of the day.
- Two in the fourth: Will Wagner led off with a walk. Davis Schneider singled. Leo Jiménez put down a nice sac bunt (almost beat out the throw to first). Lukes doubled in both runners, at the end of a 14-pitch at bat. That has to be one of the great at-bats of the season.
- One in the fifth: Barger homered.
And the two on Springer’s homer in the eighth.
Our bullpen threw 3.1 innings, giving up two runs:
- Braydon Fisher got the last out of the sixth, but gave up three hits and two runs getting just one out in the seventh.
- Chad Green got the last two outs of the seventh and the first two outs of the eighth. He came out of the eighth after they intentionally walked Judge.
- Bruihl got the last out of the inning.
- Jeff Hoffman got his third save of this series and his 21st of the season, giving up just a double (to make sure we kept watching, mostly through our fingers). He threw 14 pitches yesterday.
Jays of the Day: Springer (.267, 3 for 4, 2 home runs, 4 RBI, walk), Barger (.195, 3 for 4, 1 home run, 2 RBI), Lukes (.189, 3 for 5, 2 RBI) and Green (.168). Honourable mention to Bassitt.
Other Award: Fisher (-.192).
Vlad had a bad day too (-.076, 0 for 5, 3 strikeouts). He got a JoD in the first game of the series, but had a rough time in the last three games.
Tomorrow, the Angels are in town. Eric Lauer (4-1, 2.60) vs. TBD.
It’s an Apple TV game (stupid Apple TV games, couldn’t be a worse time for one, after the Yankees’ sweep, with the whole country cheering them).
I wonder what odds you would have gotten on FanDuel if you bet on a Jays four-game sweep?