The Blue Jays lost the opener at Yankee Stadium, running into some tough pitching.
Watching Jose Reyes hit a home run on the first pitch of the game injected Jays fans with hope. It was a false hope.
Beyond that moment, the only glimmer of life came of a Munenori Kawasaki triple in the ninth. Even then the hit led to a situation where Anthony Gose was the tying run with two outs. So... yeah.
A lot could be said about the Blue Jays bats cooling off, but it's hard to expect to do much off the trio of Masahiro Tanaka, Dellin Betances and David Robertson. New York's ace had his untouchable splitter going, fanning 10 Jays in six innings, and the Yankees bullpen pitched three scoreless innings of relief. When the game was said and done the Jays had only six hits (with two walks) and struck out 15 times. They had all of three hits after the first inning.
Many folks here would likely want to discuss the umpiring, as it was an unmitigated disaster, but it probably wasn't the difference in this game at the end of the day. That being said, Anthony Gose did strike out looking in the ninth on a pitch sequence that included no strikes. So it's not like it was inconsequential, it just seems like pitching was the biggest factor in this one. I will say that it made the game 97% more frustrating to watch. Some of the low strikes called were patently absurd.
From a pitching perspective Marcus Stroman just didn't seem to have it today. He did have some calls go against him, but he also seemed unable to put New York hitters away. The Yankees were able to foul off a tonne of his breaking balls and as a result his pitch count got ratcheted up in a hurry. The 23-year-old had two at-bats where he threw more than 10 pitches, which is one way to have a short outing. Even before he ran into trouble in the fourth his pitch count was in the 70's.
Ultimately he would fail to get out of the fourth allowing two earned runs on four hits with three walks and only two strikeouts. The damage was done on a bit of a cheap two-run home run off the bat of Brett Gardner which clanged off the foul pole in left field.
The Jays bullpen allowed only one run, but once the team was down by two this game felt over, which it was. Suffice it to say that if for some reason you PVR'd this game, there is no need to watch it.
Toronto extends its losing streak at Yankee Stadium to what seems like 16,589 but is probably only 11.
Jay of the Day: I guess Jose Reyes for the home run (.028)
Suckage Jay: Jose Bautista (-.104 and three strikeouts is always tough) and I'll throw Stroman one (-.088) for forcing the bullpen to work so hard.