Smoak contributes to another grey day
The Blue Jays got the best of the New York Yankees for just the fourth time this season, opening a three-game series with a 6-2 win Friday night.
The Jays broke out against Yankees starter Sonny Gray with a five-run second inning, with Justin Smoak’s threerun homer the key hit.
Gray needed 26 pitches to get out of the first inning, giving up a pair of two-out walks and a single before getting out of a bases-loaded jam. But he faced all nine Jays hitters in the second. Randal Grichuk singled to lead off the inning, and scored two batters later on a bat-breaking single by Devon Travis. Curtis Granderson and Yangervis Solarte also singled, with Granderson bringing home Travis, before Smoak hit his 12th homer over the right-field wall.
Solarte and Smoak combined for five hits, as many as the Yankees had against six Jays pitchers.
While Gray survived the second, he didn’t return, allowing five runs and six hits while throwing 62 pitches. He also allowed two walks, made two wild pitches and hit one batter.
The short outing for the for the 28- year-old adds intrigue to Saturday’s pitching duel between Yankees ace Luis Severino and J.A. Happ. The Jays lefthander is one of New York’s rumoured trade targets, and a deal could affect Gray, whose ERA is now 5.81. Reliever David Hale stepped up admirably for the Yankees, going 5 2/3 innings and giving up just one run on five hits.
That was a longer outing than Toronto starter Sam Gaviglio manager. Gaviglio went 4 1/3 innings, giving up two runs, one earned, and four hits, while walking three and striking out four.
Gaviglio, who gave up a solo homer to Aaron Hicks in the third, was pulled after issuing a bases-loaded walk in the fifth to the centre fielder, leaving Joe Biagini to clean up the mess by striking out designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton and getting shortstop Didi Gregorius to fly out to left.
Biagini, who earned his first win of the year, Aaron Loup, Seunghwan Oh, John Axford and Tyler Clippard held the Yankees to two walks and a hit over 4 2/3 innings. The Jays added an insurance run in the eighth on a pair of doubles from Aledmys Diaz and Teoscar Hernandez.
The win capped a memorable night for John Gibbons. The manager’s 80-yearold mother, Sallie Gibbons, tossed the ceremonial first pitch to her son, jumping with joy after she made the throw in front of a crowd of 37,254.