BLUE JAYS EXPLODE IN SERIES OPENER
NEW YORK • With one out in the fifth inning, David Price walked Brett Gardner on four pitches. A few drowsy Yankees fans began to murmur. Price turned, stared into centre field, shook his head and said, “Come on.”
Indeed. The Blue Jays’ new ace enjoyed a 9-2 lead, yet he was wobbling. In the previous inning, four Yankees had hit the ball hard on their way to a run and here he was, issuing a fourpitch walk to the No. 2 hitter.
He did rebound, striking out Alex Rodriguez for the third time, and getting Brian McCann on a ground ball. But with only five innings gone, Price had thrown 96 pitches.
Manager John Gibbons thought that was enough and grudgingly dipped into his relief corps. With a doubleheader on tap for Saturday, he had hoped Price could go deeper and minimize the use of his bullpen.
That concern would have to wait. More importantly for the first-place Jays, they hit five homers and romped to an 11-5 win that lifted them 2 ½ games ahead of the Yankees.
But after Price left, LaTroy Hawkins promptly gave up a three-run homer to Didi Gregorious, cutting the Jays lead to four runs, which, in Yankee Stadium, can amount to naught. So Gibbons had to call on Brett Cecil, who got the last out of that frame and struck out the side after allowing a leadoff single in the eighth.
Cecil extended his scoreless streak to 23 2/3 innings over 26 appearances.
Perhaps the most encouraging news of the night for Gibbons came from Russ Martin, who entered the game 0-for-12 and hitting .128 over his previous 22 games. Martin hit two homers, good for three runs, plus an RBI single.
His two-run homer was especially well-timed. It came in the seventh, a few minutes after Hawkins let the Yankees back in it.
The Jays jumped on rookie starter Luis Severino for five runs in the first, with Josh Donaldson and Justin Smoak hitting two-run homers. Severino was done in the third after Martin’s single made it 6-0.
Edwin Encarnacion joined the homer parade in the fifth with a two-run shot, his 31st.
Donaldson’s homer was his 38th. Smoak hit his 18th and Martin his 18th and 19th.
On Saturday, weather permitting, Marco Estrada and Marcus Stroman are scheduled to start in the twin-bill. Both teams used four relievers Friday night. Over the rest of the weekend, both managers will be desperately hoping their starters can go deep.