Yankees Recap: Sabathia Continues to Struggle as Yankees Drop Series in Toronto

With the roof open during a beautiful night up in Toronto, Ontario, the Yankees and Blue Jays squared off in the rubber match of their three game set. It was a matchup between C.C. Sabathia (0-4, 5.40 ERA) and Mark Buehrle (3-2, 6.75 ERA).

Sabathia, still looking for his first win since April 2014, looked like the early favorite, as the Yankees got off to a quick start on a Mark Teixeira RBI ground-out that plated Chris Young and put the Yankees up 1-0.

However, the Blue Jays quickly answered back an inning later when Ezequiel Carrera ripped a single past a diving Jose Pirela, scoring recent call-up Chris Colabello and the rookie Kevin Pillar, putting the Blue Jays up 2-1.

After that, it was all down hill for Sabathia. He lost command of his fastball, the effectiveness of his slider diminished and hitters became extremely comfortable vs. him.

The Blue Jays tacked on another run in the bottom of the fourth when Colabello singled in Russell Martin, who was only in scoring position because of a balk from C.C. Sabathia.

Two innings later, Russell Martin would strike again, turning on a 2-0 fastball and sending a solo-shot over the left-center field wall, making it 4-1 Blue Jays.

After 101 pitches, Sabathia was pulled from the game in the seventh, final line 6.1 innings pitched, 9 hits, 4 earned runs, 4 strikeouts, and 2 walks.

Esmil Rogers, who might have the best mustache of any Yankee did a nice job in relief of Sabathia, pitching 1.1 innings, but was charged with an earned run when Ryan Goins lined a stand-up triple to the right-center field gap off Chasen Shreve, scoring Colabello, who had a four-hit night and was the last runner left of base by Rogers.

It wasn’t a save situation, but Brett Cecil shut the door in the top of the ninth, clinching the series for the Blue Jays, and ending the Yankees streak of five straight winning series’. The Yankees dropped to 17-11, and Sabathia fell to 0-5 on the year. It was his second career loss at the Rodgers Centre, but his first as a New York Yankee.

On a quick side note, Pirela went 2-for-4 with a double and strikeout in his first game with the New York Yankees since being activated from the DL.

The Yankees will head home to start a three game series with the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm, as Nathan Eovaldi is set to take on Chris Tillman.

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