New York Yankees Recap: Bullpen Has Off Night As Toronto Wins Series Opener

By Ricky Keeler | May 4, 2015

It was a pitchers’ duel on Monday night at the Rogers Centre as the New York Yankees (16-10) began their three game series with the Toronto Blue Jays (13-14). R.A. Dickey had his knuckleball working for Toronto and Chase Whitley had one of the best starts of his Yankees career as he shut out the team that has scored the most runs in baseball for seven innings. Then, the bullpen had one of its rare bad games as they gave up three runs in the eighth inning to drop the opening game of the series, 3-1.

One of the things that Chase Whitley did well over the course of his seven innings of work was that he pounded the strike zone. He threw 65 of his 90 pitches for strikes as it helped him record six strikeouts. He did give up six hits, but he did a great job of getting out of big jams in this game.

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The first big spot came in the third inning when Whitley created his own problems. On a bunt by Ezequiel Carrera, Whitley made an errant throw to first base, which allowed Carrera to go all the way to third. However, Whitley would strike out Devon Travis (He struck him out twice on the night) and got Josh Donaldson to ground out to third to get out of trouble.

In the sixth, Whitley would run into more trouble. Toronto would have runners on second and third with no outs after a Travis single and Donaldson double. Facing the heart of the order, he got Jose Bautista to ground out to third, struck out Edwin Encarnacion, and got Kevin Pillar to ground out to short to get out of the jam unscathed.

R.A. Dickey was outstanding thru the first six innings as well as he had given up only two hits. The Yankees were finally able to get on the board against Dickey in the seventh. Carlos Beltran would lead off the inning with a double to right field. Stephen Drew would move him to third on a groundout to first. After a walk by Headley, first baseman Garrett Jones would drive in Beltran with a RBI groundout to first to give New York the lead.

Then, in the eighth inning, the bullpen had a rare off night. Chris Martin would start the eighth and give up back-to-back one out singles to Donaldson and Bautista. That’s when Joe Girardi would go to Dellin Betances to try to get a five out save.

The first batter he faced, Edwin Encarnacion, would hit a pop up to left field that Brett Gardner would not be able to get to. Encarnacion would pick up a double, which tied the score at one. Two batters later, Chase Headley would make an excellent play on a ground ball by Russell Martin, but Jones could not make the scoop, which allowed two runs to score.

Brett Cecil, who is the the closer again for the Blue Jays, would retire the Yankees in order in the top of the ninth inning to pick up the save. R.A Dickey, who gave up one run on three hits over eight innings, would pick up his first win of the season. Meanwhile, Chris Martin would took the loss, his first of the season.

Next Game: The Yankees will be back in action tomorrow night at 7:07 PM ET on YES as they will face the Blue Jays in the second game of this three game series. Michael Pineda (3-0, 3.73 ERA) gets the start for New York against Marco Estrada (1-0, 0.84) for Toronto.

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