Kuroda, Yankees embarrassed by Blue Jays 8-1

Hiroki Kuroda‘s road woes continued last night as the New York Yankees were pummeled by the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, 8-1. Kuroda allowed seven earned runs including three home runs in five difficult to watch innings.

Kuroda is now 0-4 with a 6.23 ERA on the road, while 3-1 and 3.08 ERA at Yankee Stadium. To make matters worse, the Yankees bats were once again dormant as struggling Kyle Drabek and two relievers held them to one run and three base hits.

The barrage began in the second inning after Kuroda had a nice 1-2-3 first, including two strikeouts. It started with an infield single by Edwin Encarnacion. Kuroda induced a double-play grounder to short off the bat of Brett Lawrie, but Robinson Cano lost the grip on the ball when trying to make the throw to first allowing Lawrie to reach base. Lawrie stole second as Colby Rasmus struck out. Kuroda could not finish off the inning as Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia drilled his fourth homer of the season to left, giving the Jays a 2-0.

The Yankees went quickly and quietly in the third inning as Drabek set them down on eight pitches hardly giving Kuroda a chance to get a drink.

It became apparent that this was going to be a long night for Kuroda as he once again had two outs before the scoring ensued. Eric Thames hit a ground-rule double and Jose Bautista walked. Up came Encarnacion, the surprise HR and RBI leader for the Jays, and he added to both totals with a blast to dead center field. It was Encarnacion‘s 13th homer of the season and the Blue Jays were up 5-0.

Drabek continued to keep the Yankees at bay, while Kuroda couldn’t keep the ball in the park. He allowed another home run to Bautista in the fifth after giving up a run in the fourth on a Kelly Johnson single. The night finally ended for Kuroda after five innings. He allowed seven earned runs, the most since his rookie season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Yankees finally got on the board in the sixth. Cano hit the 300th double of his career with one out. Alex Rodriguez lined out and then Mark Teixeira singled, his 1500th career hit to drive in the Yanks lone run.

The Blue Jays got one more run on their fourth home run of the night, this one off the bat of Kelly Johnson.

NOTEWORTHY

• Ivan Nova skipped his normal bullpen session yesterday, but is feeling better after rolling his ankle in Monday’s game.
• Derek Jeter sat out yesterday’s game just to get some rest. Joe Girardi mentioned that the team is in a 16-straight game swing and he simply chose yesterday to give Jeter a full day on the bench.
• The Blue Jays had more homers than the Yankees had hits (3) last night.
• The Yankees are 1-13 this season when scoring 3 or fewer runs.

TODAY’S GAME

The Yankees hope to win a going away game today as this mini road trip comes to an end. They send Phil Hughes to the mound to face rookie Drew Hutchison. Hughes is coming off back to back wins, but has faced less than potent lineups in the process. He’ll be tested by the Blue Jays powerful bats. The Yankees lineup is going to have to face a pitcher they have never seen before today. In recent years this spells trouble for the Bombers.

EDITORIAL NOTE

Visit the site later today as I’ll discuss if we should be concerned with the Yankees’ bats in recent days.