HIGH ENERGY YANKEES WIN BIG IN TORONTO

The game started with the Yankees' magic number for the post-season at three and the division lead at one. With both the Orioles and the Yankees playing the bottom of the division, this would not be a good night to choke against the Blue Jays.

Hiroki Kuroda did not come out looking strong tonight. The final line on him is 5 and a third innings, 10 hits, 2 runs earned, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts. The box score looked a lot better than he actually did. Consider that most of the hits he gave up (6 of the 10) were extra-base hits. Kuroda was helped by the double play and by some poor base running on the part of the Blue Jays. Nevertheless, it was good enough for his 15th win on the season.

The Yankees got on the board early, as pitcher Chad Jenkins struggled to keep the bats down. Starting things off in the top of the first, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano hit back-to-back 2-out singles. They both scored on a double by Nick Swisher, giving us a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees kept it going in top of the second, as Raul Ibanez led off with a base hit and Russell Martin and Eric Chavez reached on back-to-back walks. With the bases loaded, Derek Jeter brought in a run on a ground out double play to make it 3-0.

Russell Martin's clutch hitting continued tonight in the top of the sixth. After a Colby Rasmus home run that shrunk the lead to 3-1, Martin came up with Cano on second, Swisher on 1st and 2 outs on the board. He hit a huge line-drive home run to give the Yankees a 6-1 lead. It was huge not because of the distance, but because of the way it reversed the momentum of the game. Once again, Martin comes through.

The rally in the sixth continued as Eric Chavez walked, Derek Jeter singled, and Ichiro Suzuki singled Chavez in for a 7-1 lead. The Blue Jays answered back in the bottom half of the inning with a Kelly Johnson double and a Rajai Davis base hit. Kuroda left the game for David Phelps, who surrendered the run on a ground out fielder's choice.

The back and forth continued from there. In the top of the seventh, Nick Swisher walked and Curtis Granderson doubled to put men on second and third. A Raul Ibanez fielder's choice brought Swisher in for an 8-2 lead. In the bottom of the seventh, Phelps walked Edwin Encarnacion and then surrendered a home run to Adam Lind, making the score 8-4. The top of the eighth had Ichiro Suzuki hitting a double with one out. Reliever Chad Beck came in and, after Ichiro stole third, gave up an RBI single to Robinson Cano to make the score 9-4.

David Robertson was brought in to pitch the eighth, which turned out to be the first scoreless half-inning since the top of the fifth. Nevertheless, that did not stop the Yankees from scoring again in the ninth. Eric Chavez hit a two-run home run with Chris Dickerson on first to give the Yankees an 11-4 lead.

The Blue Jays' miscues were plentiful tonight. After getting a double to lead off the game, Brett Lawrie inexplicably strayed too far from the base and was nailed on a fielder's choice by Nick Swisher. Yunel Escobar was also caught napping on third base in the bottom of the second, thrown out by Russell Martin on a third strike pitch. In both cases, the Jays got base hits following the outs, which could have scored some runs early for the Jays. In the top of the seventh, pitcher Joel Carreno tried to throw out Russell Martin at first and ended up throwing the ball into right field.

The Yankees offense was definitely on tonight.  The Yankees scored in six of the nine innings tonight, including the last four consecutive innings. Four hitters had a multi-hit night, seven of the nine starters scored, six of the nine recorded an RBI, and five of their 13 hits were for extra bases. Let's hope they can save some for the rest of the week, as every win is important. Finally, it was nice to see Brett Gardner again out in left. All around, a very nice night.

Final Score: Yankees 11, Blue Jays 4

--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon

My blog is: Shots from Murderer's Row

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