Semien and Guerrero power the offence
The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 8-0 win Monday at Yankee Stadium:
The roll that started with a 5-1 homestand kept right on going into The Bronx, as the Blue Jays had almost all facets of the game working together once again and picked up their second straight shutout win, by the same 8-0 score.
The offence that had been struggling so mightily has now scored 42 runs over the last five games and Monday it was homer-centric.
The team that leads the major leagues in round-trippers scored seven of its eight runs via the long ball, opening up what had been a tight game with a five-spot in the ninth, capped by Marcus Semien’s grand slam, his second home run of the game and his fifth in his last five games.
Semien has a career-high 37 home runs, also a Jays record for middle infielders. Aaron Hill had held the previous mark of 36, set in 2009.
Six was enough: Hyun-Jin Ryu built on his strong first few innings against Baltimore Tuesday and dominated the Yankees in the opener of this big four-game series.
The left-hander, who had gotten knocked around in three of four late-August starts, found his form last time out against the Orioles, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning before the roof fell in on him in that frame.
Labour Day in The Bronx looked the same early on, as the Yankees couldn’t get a sniff through the first five innings, managing only a pair of weakly hit ground-ball singles.
Ryu came back out for the sixth and gave up a leadoff single, but got the next batter to hit into a double play, then struck out Joey Gallo for the third time.
When he was lifted after only 80 pitches, my initial thinking was that the Jays did not want to face scary right-handed hitters Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton a third time. It turned out, though, that Ryu felt his arm tightening up over the course of the afternoon because he decided to add a slider to his arsenal, inspired by the success Robbie Ray has had with the pitch.
Ryu pulled the plug on his outing before his arm got any more uncomfortable, and said after the game that he doesn’t think he will need any medical attention or imaging, and that he’ll be good to go for his next start, scheduled for Saturday. á Stadium special: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. joined some pretty select company by belting his 40th home run of the season on Monday, but the young slugger who hits the ball so hard and so far reached the milestone with what might have been the dinkiest one he has hit.
After Semien opened the scoring with his first dinger of the day, Guerrero came to the plate and hit what looked to be an everyday fly ball to right field.
In over half the ballparks in the major leagues, it would have been. In most others, it would have been a wall-scraper. In Yankee Stadium, it was in the fourth row. The tape measure read just 347 feet. The expected batting average? Only .220. But Guerrero will take it, just as the Yankees gladly accept all Yankee Stadium Specials that they hit.
Guerrero became the ninth player to record a 40-home run season at the age of 22 or younger. Four of those nine are in the Hall of Fame, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Bryce Harper are still playing. The other two? Juan Gonzalez and Alex Rodriguez.
Guerreros and his father have now joined Cecil and Prince Fielder as the only father-son combos to hit 40 homers in a season.
Guerrero added two singles for a three-hit day and is batting .414 over his current 14game hit streak.