Blue Jays and Yankees get physical in a wild one
TORONTO — There was bad blood at the beginning. And pure drama at the end as the New York Yankees outdid the Toronto Blue Jays in a battle of ninth-inning rallies Monday.
Trailing 3-1 after seven innings, the Yankees scored one run in the eighth and five in the ninth, then hung on to nip the Jays’ attempted comeback at two runs after Toronto loaded the bases with no outs.
The final count? New York won 7-5 to avoid a four-game sweep and leave Toronto with a little dignity after being outscored 16-3 in the first three contests.
There were also three hit batsmen, four ejections and the benches emptied twice. Not to mention 17 hits, three errors, 16 left on base and 13 pitchers used in a three-hour, 22-minute baseball smorgasbord.
Even a mini-bat flip, this time not from Jays slugger Jose Bautista but from Yankee veteran Mark Teixeira who started the ninth-inning rally with a homer off Jason Grilli. And afterward there was a healthy sample of baseball-speak as the two sides tried to explain the beanball shenanigans in the second inning.
“I don’t know, we played a game of baseball, we got into a scuffle. They came back, we made a push,” Toronto catcher Russell Martin said pithily.
The bad blood started in the first inning when New York starter Luis Severino hit Josh Donaldson on the elbow pad before a sellout crowd of 44,532. Then Toronto starter J.A. Happ took aim at Chase Headley, the first Yankee to go to the plate in the second. It took Happ two pitches to make contact with Headley — he just missed on the first attempt, throwing behind Headley. Both benches and bullpens emptied.
Severino, a 22-year-old having a difficult season, raised the stakes by throwing inside at Smoak to open the bottom of the second. He missed inside but hit Smoak on the leg with the second pitch. That prompted a second, more serious pitch invasion that saw a rolling maul of players move across the Rogers Centre infield.
Toronto manager John Gibbons said later that his players were tired of rivals taking liberties.
“Some teams have been taking potshots at us all year long and some guys just got tired of it,” he said.
Said Headley: “If they feel like they need to protect their guys, I respect that. But if you do that, you’re accepting the consequences.”
The Yankees third baseman went further, suggesting the Jays reap what they sow.
“Listen, [the Jays] are the kings of fun. The bat flip, the whole guys yelling at players. [Marcus] Stroman was screaming at our guys when he was pitching, yelling at guys to get off the effing field when he struck somebody out. You’ve got to take some of your medicine.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi, pitching coach Larry Rothschild and bench coach Rob Thomson were also thrown out.
Severino’s first inning was a rocky 32-pitch effort.
Said Severino: “I wasn’t trying to hit nobody. I wasn’t having my control in the first inning. I just tried throwing a good pitch inside and it slipped from my hand.”
Girardi did not seem to mind that Happ threw at his player, given Donaldson was hit. He was more upset that Happ tried twice — and there was no warning from the umpire after the first attempt.
“You throw it behind the guy and you miss, I mean, he’s got to be tossed. That’s terrible,” he said.
As for the baseball, Teixeira admired his one-out solo homer deep to right field off Grilli (7-6), who got the nod with closer Roberto Osuna needing rest, and then flipped the bat gently away.
“We were just having fun,” he said with a grin afterward.
After Didi Gregorius singled, Aaron Hicks went deep to right for a 5-3 lead. Jacoby Ellsbury’s RBI single and Sanchez’s sacrifice fly off Danny Barnes added to the Jays’ pain as the Yankees sent eight men to the plate.
Adam Warren (7-4) got the win and Layne the save, his first.
Toronto trails idle Boston by six game in the American League East but holds a one-game edge over the Orioles in the wild-card race.
Mariners 4, Astros 3
HOUSTON — Robinson Cano hit his second homer of the game with two outs in the 11th inning, lifting the Seattle Mariners over the Houston Astros 4-3 on Monday.
Houston scored two runs in the ninth, but then Cano sent a slider from Luke Gregerson (4-3) into the second deck in right field to win.
The victory moves Seattle two games behind Baltimore for the second AL wild card and drops Houston to 3 12⁄ games back in the race.