Toronto Blue Jays Drop Second In A Row To New York Yankees

While the Toronto Blue Jays boasted packed stands and fans that were on the edge of their seats trying to will their team to victory, that did not prove to be enough to beat the New York Yankees August 15. The Blue Jays’ bats were largely silent during their second matchup with the Yankees, leading to a 4-1 defeat of the Toronto team on home turf.

With boos resounding through Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada, every time the Yankees homered, fans were virtually on the edge of their seats to see if their beloved Blue Jays could rebound. What resulted was the team’s first back-to-back losses since July 26 and July 28. At the time, the Blue Jays had just acquired short stop Troy Tulowitzki.

Fans were hopeful that the Blue Jays were going to get the bats going when Yankees hurler Masahiro Tanaka saw the bases loaded, but beyond the sacrifice fly landed by Josh Donaldson, the Blue Jays could not sustain the action. It was the first full game that Tanaka had seen since June 28, 2014.

Some believed that the Yankees were exacting revenge for the Blue Jays winning three for three the previous weekend at Yankee Stadium, and whether or not that was true, the Yankees were more than ready to add another win to their current lead in the American League East. The Blue Jays are now one and a half games back of the Bronx Bombers after today’s loss.

Carlos Beltran, who wasted no time in putting the Yankees on the scoreboard with a homer at the top of the first inning, said that his team was focused on trying to maintain their lead.

“It doesn’t matter how we win, we just have to go out there with the mentality of not being able to think of our personal numbers, what we’re doing,” he said. “We have to think about how we can win this ballgame. Right now, we’re doing good.”

It seemed that the Blue Jays were posing a bit of a threat to an otherwise even run of Yankee pitching from Tanaka, whose pitches seemed a little unsteady in the fifth inning. The pitching, to an extent, led to the bases being loaded with Blue Jays and no outs for the Toronto team. The Blue Jays couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity, though, as Donaldson was the only one to drive someone home with his sacrifice fly. Tanaka closed out the at bat for the Blue Jays by striking out Jose Bautista and getting Edwin Encarnacion to pop out.

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons was hopeful his team could notch a win against the Yankees August 16 when the series closed out.

“It would be nice to pick one up on the last game of the homestand tomorrow,” Gibbons said.

After the Blue Jays close out their series with the Yankees August 16, the team has a day off August 17 and will face Philadelphia Tuesday and Wednesday (August 18 and 19).

(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)