Jays have sights on Yank perch
“WE’RE HERE and we shouldn’t be forgotten or overlooked.”
That was the statement that Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista said his team left for the Yankees Saturday after they clinched a series win with their seventh straight victory, 6-0, and inched closer to the top of the American League East.
Yankee starter Ivan Nova held the league’s best offense off the board until the sixth inning, when the Jays delivered the first blow. And they struck hard. First baseman Justin Smoak crushed a devastating grand slam into the right field bleachers that ousted Nova from the game after 5.1 innings. Nova was cruising and had set down 16 of his first 19 hitters before allowing the final four to reach base, including Smoak.
In the seventh, Troy Tulowitzki pelted a shot into left field stands off Bryan Mitchell to register his third homer with the Blue Jays, who have gone 11-1 since Tulowitzki came over from Colorado.
Tulowitzki said that making a statement isn’t necessary.
“I think we’re just focused … and trying to play good baseball,” he said of his team, which pulled within 2.5 games of the first-place Yankees. “I think people know we’re a good team. We don’t have to make any statements. Every time we step out on the field, people are going to realize we’re a tough team.”
Bautista, who was the hero in Friday’s 2-1 extra innings win, told reporters after that game that “we’re coming after them. That’s where we want to be — first place — and that’s where they are.”
The Yankees have 11 more games against the Blue Jays this season, and if the past two days are any indication, they might have their hands full. The Jays took three of four games from the American League’s best team in the Royals, then swept four games against another playoff contender, the Twins, before touching down in New York. The Yankees run almost parallel to the Blue Jays in runs per game (they average 4.85 to 5.3, respectively) and are even with averages of 1.3 home runs per game, but the Bombers may have lost the edge in starting pitching with Toronto’s pickup last week of ace David Price.
The lefthander allowed three hits — all singles — in seven innings on Saturday.
With the Jays flying high, having shaved 4.5 games off the Yanks’ division lead in the last week and a half, Masahiro Tanaka (8-4, 3.84) will take the ball for the Bombers in Sunday’s rubber match.
“We need (Tanaka) to step up and pitch a good game, give us an opportunity to win,” Joe Girardi said.
Bautista said everyone in the Jays lineup can “bang,” but that if he “was a starting pitcher, and I’m looking at one through five in this lineup, I better bring my ‘A’ game to shut us down.
“In my opinion, I like to go in there with confidence, like, we don’t have to figure (Tanaka) out,” Bautista told the Daily News, “he’s got to get us out.”