Ryu sharp into 7th, Semien homers as Blue Jays top Yanks
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Hyun Jin Ryu cruised into the seventh inning, Marcus Semien and Rowdy Tellez homered, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees 7-3 on Tuesday night.
Ryu (1-1) allowed only an unearned run over 6 2/3 innings, striking out seven and limiting the Yankees to four hits and a walk. The Blue Jays ace retired 12 in a row after DJ LeMahieu had a leadoff infield single in the first.
Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks was back in the lineup and went 3 for 4 after getting permission from manager Aaron Boone to sit out Monday’s game following the police shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, in Minnesota.
“He’s in a good head space,” Boone said before the game. “There’s no question he was down yesterday when we first talked in my office. Just struggling.”
Giancarlo Stanton, mired in an 0-for-16 skid, got the Yankees within 6-3 on a two-run single off Jordan Romero in the eighth. With Hicks batting against Julian Merryweather with two on and two outs, Gary Sanchez got caught between first and second after a pitch in the dirt and was tagged out in a rundown.
Bo Bichette put Toronto ahead 7-3 with an eighthinning sacrifice fly
Josh Palacios had a tworun single in the second and Randal Grichuk hit a thirdinning sacrifice fly off Jameson Taillon (0-1).
Semien connected for a solo homer before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made it 5-0 and ended Taillon’s night on an RBI double in the fourth.
Taillon allowed five runs and eight hits over 3 2/3 innings in his second start after missing the 2020 season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Tellez had a fifth-inning solo shot off Lucas Luetge.
Romero replaced David Phelps, who earlier in the
eighth departed after he appeared to get hit in the lower back by Clint Frazier’s single.
RED SOX 4, TWINS 2
MINNEAPOLIS — Rafael Devers homered for the fourth straight game and the streaking Boston Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 4-2 on a snowy Tuesday afternoon in a series opener moved back following the fatal police shooting of a Black man in a nearby suburb.
Hunter Renfroe hit a solo homer and Bobby Dalbec added a pair of RBI doubles as Boston won its seventh in a row after losing its first three games of the season.
“I felt good today. I felt good in my early work the last two days, even though we didn’t play yesterday,“Dalbec said. “Obviously, it’s pretty cold and tough to get the hands going. But you kind of got to just push through it and find a way to stay warm.”
Monday’s game was postponed due to safety and sensitivity concerns in the Twin Cities after the police shooting a day earlier of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. The Twins held a moment of silence for Wright prior to Tuesday’s game.
Snow flurries fell for most of the game and it was 33 degrees for the first pitch. That made for the thirdcoldest
start at Target Field, the record being 27 degrees on April 7, 2018.
“It was cold. I don’t feel my fingers the first inning,” said Boston starter Martin Perez, who allowed the first two hitters of the game to score before settling in for five innings.
Adam Ottavino (1-0) earned the win with a scoreless inning of relief. Matt Barnes pitched a perfect ninth for his first save of the season.
Randy Dobnak (0-2) took the loss for Minnesota, which has lost three in a row.
“I think that this is one of those periods of time that I think a lot of teams go through when you’re looking for a big hit,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You’re looking for something to set everything off and get things rolling in some of these games.“
“We had really good at-bats to start this game. We had a ton of guys on base. We pushed a couple of runs across. We need to find ways to do that as the game goes on, as the relievers find their way into these games,” he said.
Christian Arroyo led off the eighth against Dobnak with a double and scored on Dalbec’s second double of the game to right field to break a 2-all tie. Arroyo had two hits and scored on both of Dalbec’s doubles.