Game Recap: Kuroda Solid as Yankees End Skid

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

After dropping their past four games, the Yankees went into the third game against Toronto needing a win. With Hiroki Kuroda on the mound, the Bombers could only hope he’d give them a solid start and he did.

However, the Blue Jays got going quickly. The first batter of the game was Jose Reyes and he greeted Kuroda promptly with a home run to right. The Jays would hold that lead until the third inning.

After Kelly Johnson walked, Francisco Cervelli laced a double to right. Johnson would come all the way around to score tie the game at one. After Brett Gardner and the very soon to be 40-year old Derek Jeter were retired,  Jacoby Ellsbury singled to center to plate Cervelli which gave the Yankees their first lead since Carlos Beltran‘s walk-off homer against Baltimore on the 20th.

The very next batter was Mark Teixeira who drilled his 14th long ball of the season to make it a 4-1 lead for New York.

Just when you began to feel comfortable with the direction the game was heading, the blue birds struck again. This time, it was former Yankee Melky Cabrera who singled to left to score two runs cutting the deficit to 4-3.

The Yankees would load the bases with no outs in the seventh, but if you have watched even a fraction of the games this year, you would know that it’s not really a good thing. Luckily, the Yanks managed to get one across this time to. Teixeira would add another RBI with a sacrifice fly to give his club a huge insurance run to double their lead to two making it a 5-3 ballgame.

By the end of the inning, both starting pitchers were finished for the day. Drew Hutchison pitched six innings of four run ball on seven hits for Toronto. As for Kuroda, he finished with 6.1 innings surrendering three runs on eight hits.

The Yankees wouldn’t look back as Shawn Kelley, Matt Thornton, Adam Warren, and David Robertson would combine for the final 2.2 innings. Robertson picked up a five out save for his 18th of the season. The Yankees record now stands at 40-37 which puts them 2.5 behind Toronto for first place in the AL East.