Slugging Goins sacrifices two for the team
NEW YORK— Ryan Goins did something here Monday night that no one else in Jays history had ever done.
It’s also likely that manager John Gibbons came up with a similar rarity, as the Jays smacked the red-hot Yankees 7-1 on a feel-good night for the Toronto club.
Goins hit a two-run homer in the second inning, then slammed a ball up against the 408-foot sign in centre in the sixth inning that Yankees outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury jumped and caught, but lost as he came down.
That turned into a two run sacrifice fly, an extreme rarity in baseball and a franchise first for the Jays. The last time any- one in baseball had a two-run sac fly was Sept.16, 2014, when Tampa Bay did it, also against the Yankees, and also after an Ellsbury catch.
“I felt good there, (Ellsbury has) robbed me of a hit about 10 times before, so I was a little pissed off, a little happy, a little of both,” Goins said.
Goins led a 12-hit attack that saw the Jays jump all over fastballs from Luis Severino, who came thudding back to earth after a hot April. The Yankees starter had gone seven innings in his previous three starts but didn’t get out of the sixth against Toronto.
Gibbons had some fun after the game — his club’s third win in a row — calling in to Mike Wilner’s popular Jays Talk postgame radio show. The intent was to toss a friendly chirp or two at the host, who earlier discussed why Gibbons gave starting catcher Russell Martin the night off Monday.
Gibbons did his best to sound like any other caller, and he was introduced as “John from the Bronx.” After asking about Marco Estrada’s tremendous, seven-inning performance, Gibbons pressed on about receiving free tickets to a future game.
That capped off a fun night for the Jays, who also got homers from Jose Bautista and Chris Coghlan, to improve to 9-17.
Estrada was brilliant, limiting the Yankees to seven hits, with no walks, over seven innings.
His outing came a day after Toronto needed six relievers to go eight innings in relief of Aaron Sanchez, who left Sunday’s game with a cracked fingernail.
Estrada, with arguably his finest changeup of the season, had three incredible in-game battles: He struck out Greg Bird looking on a changeup in the third, after Bird fouled off two with two strikes; he also wiped out Brett Gardner on strikes in a ninepitch at-bat in the fifth, and the only damage he suffered — an RBI single by Aaron Judge in the fourth — came after Starlin Castro singled on the final pitch of a 10-pitch at-bat.
“He puts up great at-bats, he’s had success against me,” Estrada said of Castro. “And if he doesn’t get a hit, he wastes good pitches . . . they all do over there (Yankees), so you have to keep making pitches and hope you get them out.”
Estrada did just that, silencing the first-place Yankees, who entered the game leading the American League in runs and owning the league’s best run differential (plus-43).
“It’s not like I was thinking about it, but I knew I was 0-1” said Estrada, who was making his sixth start of the season.
Estrada had allowed just two earned runs over his previous 20 innings.
“He may be the most underrated pitcher in baseball,” Gibbons added.
Estrada was particularly happy with catcher Luke Maile, who was acquired on waivers April 6, and was starting Monday after Gibbons gave Martin a rest day.
“I felt like I’ve thrown to him for years,” Estrada said. “I didn’t shake him off, I didn’t feel the need to. We were in sync, it was like playing catch.”
Gibbons, in the meantime, was hopeful that injured third baseman Josh Donaldson and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki might rejoin the Jays at some point in their next homestand, which begins with the return of Edwin Encarnacion next Monday, when the Cleveland Indians visit the Rogers Centre.