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New York Yankees Recap: 8th Inning Rally Propels Team To First Win Of Season

By Ricky Keeler

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It was a cold night in the Bronx as the New York Yankees played their first night game of the 2015 season. The temperature reflected the Yankees offense over the first six innings as New York had managed only one run. Then, against the combination of Aaron Loup and Brett Cecil, New York went small ball as they scored three runs on three hits, two hit-by-pitches, and a wild pitch as they won their first game of the year.

The inning began when Chris Young hit a bloop double into right field. After Ellsbury singled to center, Brett Gardner was hit in the forearm to load the bases. Aaron Loup would leave the game for Brett Cecil as he tried to get a six-out save. After a wild pitch cut Toronto’s lead to 3-2 at the time, Cecil struck out Carlos Beltran. However, later in the inning, Cecil hit McCann to lose the lead. Then, Chase Headley gave New York the lead with a single on a ball that went off of Cecil’s glove and into left field. It was Headley’s second hit of the night (both singles).

For Yankees’ starter Michael Pineda, the pitch that was successful for him tonight was his changeup. Out of the six strikeouts he had (all swinging), four of them came on a last pitch changeup. He went six innings, gave up two earned runs on six hits, walked one, and the aforementioned six K’s on 97 pitches in a no decision.

Just like Opening Day, the Blue Jays got on the board first in the top of the third inning. After an infield single by Kevin Pillar, Justin Smoak hit a double off the right field wall to put two runners in scoring position. Then, Devon Travis would hit an RBI infield single to short to give Toronto a 1-0 lead. With runners on first-and-third and one out, Pineda would escape further trouble with strikeouts of Russell Martin and Jose Bautista, who he struck out three times.

In the fifth inning, after Travis hit another single, Jose Reyes would find a way to get a hit thru the right side of the infield and advance to second on a throw by Stephen Drew. That set up a sac fly by Martin to right to make it 2-0.

The Yankees had their chances against R.A. Dickey tonight, but managed to come up with only one run over 6.1 innings. That run came in the bottom of the fifth inning on a Beltran sacrifice fly to center field that scored Ellsbury. After a hitless Opening Day, Ellsbury went 2-for-2 with two walks, two singles, and a stolen base.

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Once Dickey came out of the game after a Chase Headley single to left field, Alex Rodriguez nearly hit a go-ahead home run to left field against Miguel Castro, but the wind would keep it  in the park. Headley would tag up to second, but he would stay there after Drew ended the inning with a strikeout. While Dickey did walk three batters, he held New York to three hits, gave up one run, and struck out four on 94 pitches.

As for the Yankees bullpen, Joe Girardi gave the ball to Chris Martin in the seventh inning and he retired Toronto 1-2-3 in his second appearance of the season. Then, the ball went to Dellin Betances for the eighth.

Betances did get the fastball up to 97 miles per hour, but had trouble commanding it during the outing. He walked two batters and gave up a single to Encarnacion. Brian McCann would try to pick him off , but he threw it into right field to extend the Jays lead to 3-1. Betances would keep the damage there, but needed 32 pitches to do it. However, he does get credit for the win.

After the Bronx Bombers took the lead, Girardi gave the ball to Andrew Miller for his first save opportunity in pinstripes. He threw 11 pitches in a 1-2-3 inning, which included a strikeout of Travis to get his second career save.

The Yankees will look to win the first series of the year tomorrow night at 7:05 PM ET when CC Sabathia makes his first start of 2015 against Toronto’s young lefty, Daniel Norris.

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