O offense, where art thou?

Freddy Garcia had his first clunker as a starter for the Yanks in a 5-3 setback to the Blue Jays, but even in shitting the bed he was still pretty effective. He allowed 12 base runners in five innings but only three of them scored; he kept them in good position to win (it was 3-2 when he left). If the offense hadn’t gone 0-for-8 with RISP and stranded 11 runners, they probably would have won.

Fabulous Freddy went five innings and gave up three runs on seven hits with six strikeouts to five walks. His streak of 14 scoreless innings as a starter ended with Bautista’s homer in the third inning. He threw 84 pitches through four innings tonight, whereas he used 84 pitches in six innings in his first start and tossed 90 in six innings in his second start. His total tonight was 101 pitches with 57 going for strikes. He also walked just four batters in the first 13 innings this season, but issued free passes to five of the first 22 Blue Jays he saw tonight.

He just didn’t have it, but he battled and made due. It could have been a lot worse. I think he’ll bounce back nicely (not a fat joke, I swear).

As mentioned earlier, the offense was atrocious except for Cano*, who hit a pair of solo homers and walked before scoring on a Martin double. They squandered a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity in the fifth that was basically given to them via an Edwin Encarnacion error, and a bases-juiced, one-out situation in the eighth after Jeter* had a disgusting at-bat and Swish Dog grounded out. Needless to say, it was not a good night for the Yankee bats.

*Cano came into the game with one walk in his first 94 plate appearances this season and walked twice in his first three PA tonight (one of his walks even came on four pitches!). It was also his seventh career multi-homer game, with his last coming one year ago to the day at Baltimore. His previous multi-homer game was April 25, 2009 against Boston. That’s kind of weird.

*Jeter is 1-for-21 with the bases loaded since 2010 and 1-for-25 with the bases full since the end of 2009. So…yeah.

The good news is every other AL East team (except for the Orioles, but they don’t count) lost on Friday, so the 14-9 Yanks have a 1 1/2-game lead in the division.

Fun Facts:

• D-Rob pitched the sixth and had the botch of all botches on a pickoff attempt that led to two runs. Buddy Carlyle, Joba and Boone Logan combined to throw the final three innings while yielding just one hit (courtesy of Boom Boom Boone).
• A-Rod went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and now has just three hits in his last 23 at-bats.
• Jose Bautista has 10 homers in his last 23 games (dating back to 2009) against the Yanks. F’ that guy.
• Four of the first 10 Blue Jays reached base, but the team was 0-for-5 with RISP during that span.
• Frankie Cervelli was activated before the game, and Gus Molina was optioned to Triple-A to make for him.
• Fabulous Freddy has 134 wins, good for the most of any Venezuelan-born pitcher in MLB history (one more than Johan Santana).
• Via @YankeesPR: The Yanks donated $500,000 — to be split between the Salvation Army and Red Cross — to support the tornado relief efforts in the US.

The Yanks will send AJ to the mound against Kyle Drabek tomorrow at 4:05. The good news is that the game isn’t on FOX so we won’t be subjected to Buck and McCarver, that’s a win right there.

LET’S GO YANKS!!!!