What a difference a day made for the New York Yankees, after five straight losses, the Yankees came alive last night in Buffalo. Number one pitching prospect Deivi Garcia pitched brilliantly and went deep into the game resting the bullpen. Gleyber Torres ignited the Yankees with a home run, a double, and a sac to provide four of the seven runs that overtook the Blue Jays in the final game of the series at Sahlen Field.
The New York Yankees had lost 15 of the last twenty games and were on the precipice of losing a postseason spot. Given the losses, General Manager Brian Cashman traveled to Buffalo to give the team a rare pep talk.
”We’ve gotten beaten up here for a couple of weeks, especially this last week, and have lost some tough games,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. ”To finally get back in the win column, I think gives guys a chance to exhale as we head home.”
Garcia, in inning one, allowed a hit, but a pop out got him out of the inning. At the top of the second inning, Gleyber Torres approached the plate with Roark on the mound and promptly hit a (417′) home run deep over the centerfield fence to give the Yankees the one-run lead. At the bottom of the frame, Garcia gave up a homer driving in two for the 2-1 Blue Jay lead, the only time the Jays would lead in the game.
DJ LeMahieu would follow at the top of the third, with a long homer into the right-field stands to tie the game back up at 2, and knocking out Blue Jays starter Roark. Strickland came in and at the top of the fifth inning Luke Voit singled driving in Tyler Wade, and the Yankees took back the lead. Also in the fifth Gleyber Torres struck again, this time with a double scoring Voit and Hicks, giving the Yankees the 5-2 lead. It encouraged Yankees fans to see the performance with men on base.
At the bottom of the seventh Deivi Garcia was on the mound again, and put down the Jays batters one, two, three. Garcia won his first game in the majors last night and showed that he belongs permanently in the Yankee pitching rotation. His final line was seven innings throwing 95 pitches, giving up two runs while striking out six and walking none. Zack Britton pitched a scoreless eighth and Aroldis Chapman closed out the win by striking out all three Jays in the bottom of the ninth, for the save.
At the top of the ninth, the Yankees weren’t done. Clint Frazier added his bat with a single scoring DJ LeMahieu from third. Torres, helping out the New York Yankees again had a short pop fly that scored Hicks for the Yankee’s final score of 7-2 over the Jays.
The big difference in this game compared to games that the Yankees previously lost is that the hitting awakened and they didn’t get left on base, and timely hitting drove in runs. Two homers, seven hits and seven walks provided the Yankee runners. Having a good pitching performance holding down the Jays, obviously helped.
Thursday, the Yankees will be back at Yankee Stadium for the first game of a four-game set with the Baltimore Orioles. With this win, the Yankees will go into the series with a bit of momentum.