Jays double down after delay
Trailing 6-0, Toronto finds power surge to clobber Yankees 12-6
NEW YORK — In any memorable baseball season, there are watershed moments, a handful of games that have a way of changing the course of history.
If this turns out to be one of those special seasons for the Blue Jays, this surely will be one of those games.
Coming off a lacklustre performance on Monday when they were blanked by the Yankees 1-0, the Jays spotted New York a 6-0 lead Tuesday night, then tracked them down and passed them over the final four innings for a 12-6 victory that leaves Toronto alone in first place in the American League East.
Amid rampant angst about their lack of recent offence, the Blue Jays (68-52) exploded for four home runs — two in the sixth and two more in the eighth — while putting up 12 unanswered runs.
With four runs in the top of the sixth, the Jays cut the early lead to 6-4, then erupted for eight runs in the eighth, sending 13 men to the plate in the process. Edwin Encarnacion hit his 34th home run of the season, a two-run shot that tied it.
Three batters later, Russell Martin hit his second homer of the game, scoring Troy Tulowitzki ahead of him to give the Jays the lead.
From there the Yankee bullpen imploded, allowing four more runs on three hits, two walks and a hit batsman.
The late rally made a winner out of reliever Scott Feldman (6-4), who came into the game after a 40-minute rain delay forced starter Marco Estrada out of the game after four innings. At that point, Estrada had been pummelled by three home runs, two of them by rookie catcher Gary Sanchez in his shortest outing of the season.
Tulowitzki, who had a four-hit night that included a two-run homer in the four-run sixth, and Martin each drove in three runs for Toronto, with Martin hitting two home runs.
All the Yankee runs against Estrada came in three different innings after two were out with no runners on base.
After Estrada struck out the first two men he faced in the game, shortstop Didi Gregorius jumped all over the first pitch he saw and hammered it on a line into the second deck in right. With two out in the second inning, Sanchez worked the count full then exploded all over an Estrada change-up for his third homer of the season. His second homer came in the fourth inning, once again with two outs
After the Jays went down in the top of the fifth, the skies opened up and play was stopped for a 41-minute rain delay. When the game resumed, Feldman was on the mound for the Jays and for the first time this season, Estrada had failed to go at least five innings. Over his four innings, Estrada allowed five hits.
Yankee starter Michael Pineda did not come out after the rain delay either, leaving with five shutout innings under his belt, having allowed four hits and no walks.
It took the Blue Jays 15 innings of baseball at Yankee Stadium to score their first run of the series but when they did, they didn’t stop until they brought the Yankees to their knees.
With Pineda out of the game, Anthony Swarzak took over and promptly gave up a leadoff double to Travis. Donaldson’s infield single and Headley’s throwing error scored Travis and put Donaldson in scoring position for Tulowitzki’s 21st homer of the year, a two-run shot. The boos had not before Martin followed with his 11th of the season to cut the lead to 6-4.
In the eighth after Donaldson battled reliever Adam Warren through a 12-pitch leadoff walk, fouling off seven pitches in the process, Encarnacion stepped in and hammered his 34th home run of the season into the seats to tie the game at 6-6.
From that point on it was all a romp for the Toronto offence.