Results tagged ‘ Adam Lind ’

Yanks’ tandem an upgrade at catcher

So where is Russell Martin these days? Oh, that’s right; he took off for Pittsburgh as a free agent in the past off-season because the Pirates came up with a second year in their contract offer. Good for him; I hope he is happy.

I was thinking about Martin during the Yankees-Blue Jays game Sunday at Toronto when Chris Stewart hit a home run in the third inning and threw out Melky Cabrera trying to steal second base in the fifth.

I do not mean to pick on Martin as much as those who kept reporting all winter about how the Yankees blew it by not conceding to the catcher’s contract demands and would regret it. Look at what Stewart and Francisco Cervelli have done so far this year. Does anyone miss Russell Martin all that much?

The Cervelli-Stewart tandem was treated in a few media outlets as some sort of joke during spring training, but the duo have been a major part of the Yankees’ good start that hit a bump Sunday with an 8-4 loss. Stewart was involved in all the Yankees’ scoring innings. He got the Yanks on the board with his first home run of the season, began the two-run rally in the fifth with a single and bunted Jayson Nix to third base with one out in the sixth that preceded the sacrifice fly by Brett Gardner that gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead at that point.

In the first two games of the series – both Yankees victories – Cervelli was behind the plate and had 3-for-8 (.375) with two doubles and two runs scored. He has gotten the bulk of the playing time of the two catchers, with 42 at-bats to Stewart’s 17, but manager Joe Girardi insists that they are sharing the position. However the breakdown, the catching situation has been in good hands.

Cervelli and Stewart are batting a combined .322 with a .525 slugging percentage, three doubles, three home runs and eight RBI in 59 at-bats. Martin? He is hitting .216 with a .353 slugging percentage, three doubles, one home run and three RBI in 51 at-bats. Again, not to pick on the guy, but I cannot remember just when it was that Russell Martin became the second coming of Thurman Munson, which seemed to be an off-season theme in some circles.

Martin had two decent seasons with the Yankees. Last year, he showed renewed power (21 home runs) and had some memorable game-winning hits, including a huge homer against the Mets, but hit .211 for the season. Now I realize that the seamheads who adore the boutique stats don’t make much of batting average anymore, but .211 is still .211, which is not good by any measure.

Stewart had his hands full Sunday with another erratic outing from Ivan Nova, who threw 101 pitches but was gone after giving up a walk and a double to the first two batters in the sixth that the Jays turned into a four-run inning with RBI hits off relievers Boone Logan and David Phelps to regain the lead they would not relinquish again.

The leadoff walk in the sixth was to Toronto designated hitter Adam Lind. I do not know what the Yankees’ scouting report was on Lind, but they sure pitched to him carefully in the series. Lind had five plate appearances and walked in every one, including all four times he stepped to the plate Sunday.

It was nonetheless a positive series for the Yankees, who move on to St. Petersburg, Fla., for a three-game set against another American League East rival, the Rays, who swept the Athletics over the weekend at Tropicana Field.

Despite being booed loudly and repeatedly in the city where he was once a favorite, Vernon Wells will miss Toronto. He had quite series, going 7-for-15 (.467) with a double and two home runs. He also made the defensive play of the game Sunday in the third inning with a fence-climbing catch in left field to rob Edwin Encarnacion of a potential run-scoring, extra-base hit and begin a rally-killing double play.

Gardner also found Toronto to his liking, as usual. He had 5-for-14 (.357) in the series with a double, a home run, a stolen base, two runs and two RBI. Gardner is a .370 career hitter at Rogers Centre with 18 runs, six doubles, six triples, one home run and eight RBI in 30 games.

Ibanez’s power makes up for loss of Gardner’s speed

A home run derby was expected to break out Monday night at Yankee Stadium between the Yankees and the Blue Jays, the top two power-hitting teams in the major leagues. That may well occur throughout this three-game series, and indeed the long ball factored heavily in the Yanks’ 6-3 victory in the opener of the set.

The game had been a pitcher’s duel for the most part. It was a 2-2 game into the eighth inning with each team getting one of its runs on homers – Russell Martin for the Yankees and Adam Lind for the Jays.

Raul Ibanez’s 10th career grand slam in the eighth, off righthander Jason Frasor, was the deciding blow, of course, and a majestic one, landing in the right field second deck. The Yankees loaded the bases on singles by Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano and a hit by pitch of Mark Teixeira. Frasor got a big strikeout of Nick Swisher, who took a slider for strike three, but fell behind 3-1 in the count to Ibanez, who got all of a 93-mile-per-hour fastball.

“I wasn’t thinking grand slam in that spot,” Ibanez said. “With two out, you don’t necessarily want a ball in the air. I was just trying to hit a line drive.”

Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes suggested that Frasor thought Ibanez would be taking on 3-1.

“Oh, no,” Ibanez said, laughing. “I was ready to hit my pitch if I got it.”

It was the 144th home run of the season for the Yankees. Toronto is second with 131, but its total may not rise very much if right fielder Jose Bautista is out of the lineup for a stretch. The slugger with the most home runs over the past two seasons was forced out of Monday night’s game in the eighth inning when he injured his left wrist on a swing that produced a scorching foul ball down the left field line.

X-rays were negative. Bautista will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam Tuesday and will probably not play the remainder of the series.

Before Monday night, the Yankees and Jays had played only two games against each other May 16-17 at Rogers Centre with Toronto winning both. The Jays’ rotation has been decimated by injuries since, so much so that manager John Farrell is operating with a 14-man staff.

Hughes began the season by giving up home runs in each of his first 12 starts, but he did not allow a homer in his past three starts. Serving up only one Monday night was a positive.

The slam by Ibanez was the sixth of the season for the Yankees, who have struggled otherwise with the bases loaded. Swisher struck out twice with the bags full. The Yankees are hitting .191 in bases-loaded situations.

Just before the game, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that disabled left fielder Brett Gardner had to be shut down again because of pain in his left arm. Although they have certainly missed the element of speed that Gardner gives them, the Yankees have overcome his loss largely due to the hitting of Ibanez, who has 12 home runs and 40 RBI. He had been signed to be in a platoon with Andruw Jones at designated hitter but with Gardner lost since mid-April has played a lot of left field.

“Playing more often has probably helped him be more productive,” manager Joe Girardi said. “He has had some huge hits for us.”

Girardi explained that Gardner’s injury has allowed him to DH Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter more often to keep them fresh and has provided additional playing time for Eric Chavez. A-Rod was the DH Monday night because a stiff neck made it difficult for him to throw. Ibanez gets a caddy in DeWayne Wise in the late innings if the Yankees are ahead. That was the case Monday night, thanks to Ibanez himself.

Mo will go for save No. 602 in final homestand

The Yankees wheezed their way to the end of a 4-city, 11-day, 10-game trip through Baltimore, Anaheim, Seattle and Toronto and were lifeless in Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. The Yanks were 4-6 on the arduous trip with four walk-off losses but had a couple of highlights with Mariano Rivera earning career saves Nos. 600 and 601 to tie Trevor Hoffman’s major-league record.

Mo can try to make the record his own at Yankee Stadium where the Yankees will play eight games over the next seven days on the last regular-season homestand of the season. To say it will be good to get home is a major understatement.

With the Rays continuing to encroach on the Red Sox’ lead in the wild-card race and pushing Boston 4 ½ games behind the Yankees in the American League East, manager Joe Girardi had the opportunity to rest some players Sunday, which he did by giving three regulars the day off. Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira weren’t even used in pinch-hit situations as the Yankees went down meekly to Brandon Morrow, who pitched eighth brilliant innings, and Frank Francisco, who worked the ninth for his 16th save.

Against Morrow, the Yankees scratched out only four hits – three of them in the infield – and a walk while striking out eight times. Eduardo Nunez, who played second base as Robinson Cano was the designated hitter, had three hits, including a double off Francisco in the ninth, but was thrown out on the bases trying to stretch his second hit into a double. Nunez was the only one of the Yankees to get to second base, which he did twice.

Freddy Garcia had his third straight poor outing and was undone by two home runs from Adam Lind, who had a monster series (6-for-12, 2 doubles, 2 home runs, 5 RBI, 3 runs). Garcia did not get through the fifth inning. He has allowed 15 earned runs and 21 hits, including six homers, in 12 1/3 innings (10.95 ERA) over his past three starts in which his season ERA has swollen from 3.09 to 3.77.

Garcia’s early exit allowed Girardi the chances to see some relievers who are auditioning for postseason roster spots. The most impressive was lefthander Raul Valdes, who began the year with the Cardinals and was claimed off waivers by the Yankees Aug. 16 and pitched at Double A Trenton. He entered the game in the sixth with one out, the bases full and Lind at bat. Valdes got him looking at a third strike and retired Edwin Encarnacion on a ground ball to end the threat. It was one bright spot in a gloomy day for the Yankees.

Many collaborators in Hughes’ first victory

It was not surprising that Derek Jeter did not play Sunday. With all eight games on the Yankees’ current trip to be played on artificial turf, manager Joe Girardi was wise to keep the Captain off the carpet at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. The Yanks move on to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., for a four-game set against the Rays starting Monday night, so expect Jeter to get a night off in that series as well.

DJ’s replacements did fine in his absence as the Yankees gained a split of the series against the Blue Jays with a 7-2 victory that got Phil Hughes his first winning decision of the season. Splits of four-game series always look positive after a team has lost the first two games, which is what happened to the Yankees.

Eduardo Nunez played errorless ball at shortstop and contributed a keep-the-line-moving single in the Yankees’ four-run fourth inning off Carlos Villanueva that sort of broke the game open. Nunez has played third base while Alex Rodriguez (right knee arthroscopic surgery) is on the disabled list. Ramiro Pena played third Sunday and drove in a run with a fly ball in the fourth.

The big hit of that inning was a two-run double by Curtis Granderson, who added a third RBI in the ninth to raise his season total to 68 taking over the club lead from Mark Teixeira, who has 66.

In Jeter’s leadoff spot was Brett Gardner, who finished off a terrific series by reaching base four times with three singles and a walk, stealing two bases and scoring three runs. Gardner has 10-for-16 (.625) on the trip with three doubles, three stolen bases and five runs. He has raised his season batting average from .265 to .286.

Among the more satisfying aspects of the Yankees’ victories Saturday and Sunday was that they did not rely on the long ball as none of their 21 hits in the two games was a home run.

Hughes resembled more the pitcher that won 18 games last year than the one who struggled in April and landed on the DL due to a dead arm. “A big step forward” was how Girardi described the outing by Hughes, who gave up two runs, four hits and two walks with five strikeouts in six innings. The righthander had zip on his fastball and break on his curve. His next start will be on regular rest, which will be yet another test.

One of the weirdest defensive alignments occurred in the ninth inning against Teixeira, who sees the shift used against him many times when batting left-handed. Blue Jays manager John Farrell deployed a quirk to the maneuver by having third baseman Edwin Encarnacion hold the runner, Granderson, on at first base while first baseman Adam Lind played back. It had no effect on the game as Tex flied out to left field.

Yanks can’t recover from horrid 1st inning

The Yankees got off to a pretty rocky start post-All-Star break Thursday night at Toronto. Talk about rocky starts, how about Bartolo Colon? The feel-good story for the Yankees in the first half, Colon failed to survive the first inning as the Blue Jays struck for eight runs. The only Toronto player who did not score that inning was Adam Lind, and he joined the pack when he scored in the second to make the score 9-0.

Colon’s lack of mobility on the mound was a factor in the inning. He did cover first base to get an out on Lind, but two dribblers to the left side later in the inning became RBI singles for Rajai Davis and Yunel Escobar. When Eric Thames doubled beyond the reach of Curtis Granderson in center field, Yankees manager Joe Girardi had seen enough and yanked Colon from the game.

Despite the onslaught of runs, Colon’s ERA didn’t take that much of a hit. It rose from 3.20 to 3.47. That was because only three of the eight runs off him were earned. A damaging error by Eduardo Nunez prolonged the inning.

The defensive problems that Nunez experienced at shortstop followed him to third base where he is spelling Alex Rodriguez, who is recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. With three runs in and runners on first and second with two out, Nunez failed to glove a bouncing ball near the bag by J.P. Arencibia. The error loaded the bases, and the next three batters combined to knock in four runs. The fifth unearned run scored on a balk by Luis Ayala in a very ugly inning.

All those unearned runs came back to haunt the Yankees when they made a game of it later on with huge contributions from Andruw Jones. He hit a home run to start a four-run third inning that also featured a two-run triple by Granderson, who then scored on an infield out. Jones got his second homer of the game with two on in the sixth that made the score 9-7. Jays starter Jo Jo Reyes barely pitched long enough (5 1/3 innings) to qualify for a winning decision and seemed to be doing everything in his power not to get one.

Jones started as the designated hitter against the left-handed Reyes, but with righthander Shawn Camp in the game in the eighth, Girardi sent Jorge Posada up as a pinch hitter (he grounded out). In doing so, history was made. It marked the 1,661st time that Posada and Derek Jeter were in the same game, breaking the franchise record for teammates previously held by Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri.

Despite losing slugger Jose Bautista in the fourth inning due to a twisted right ankle while sliding into third base, the Blue Jays kept putting runs on the board and finished with a 16-7 victory on 20 hits. The loss ended a string of victories by the Yankees in the first game back from the All-Star break dating to 2002. The nine-year streak tied a record the Yankees set from 1940-49 (there was no All-Star Game in 1945) and matched by the Montreal Expos from 1984-92.

Thursday night began a 22-game stretch in which the Yankees were scheduled to play 18 times against clubs with records at or below .500. Toronto moved to one game below .500.

More ‘small ball’ at Stadium

The sacrifice as an offensive weapon has made a big comeback this week at Yankee Stadium.

Sunday, it was Curtis Granderson, the 16-home run hitter, asked to lay down a bunt to move runners to second and third. It worked, too, as the Yankees broke open the game with an eight-run seventh inning to beat the Mets, 9-3.

Monday night, Blue Jays manager John Farrell followed Joe Girardi’s plan and had his cleanup hitter give himself up in the sixth inning with the score 1-1 to push up runners and fuel a rally that resulted in a five-spot as Toronto took a 6-1 lead against Bartolo Colon, who had been pretty strong up to that point, on the way to a 7-3 victory.

The only blemish in Colon’s first five innings was Jose Bautista’s 19th home run with two out in the first. Next time up, Bautista walked in the third. Colon had learned his lesson. Colon also put Bautista on with a walk in the sixth. This one was intentional, which made sense considering that first base was open after a leadoff double by Corey Patterson.

Toronto shortstop Yunel Escobar, who granted is not your normal cleanup hitter, then bunted the runners to second and third. Farrell has had to play around with his lineup since Adam Lind went on the disabled list last week with a lower back injury. Escobar has never hit more than 14 home runs in a season. Still, it is not every day you see a guy batting cleanup asked to sacrifice.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, it worked this time, too. Aaron Hill singled in a run. Colon then shot himself in the foot with a four-pitch walk to Eric Thames to force in a run. J.C. Arencibia, who had been called out on strike his previous two times up, jumped on a first-pitch fastball and doubled to center, clearing the bases.

That one bad inning kept Colon winless in five starts since April 27. The Yankees managed only one run and two hits off Carlos Villanueva, whose previous 13 appearances this year had been in relief and who was making his first start since Oct. 3, 2009 for the Brewers against the Cardinals. Farrell hoped to get five innings out of the righthander, which he did.

Granderson and Robinson Cano collaborated on all three Yankees’ runs. Granderson had three walks and was driven home each time by Cano on a sacrifice fly, a fielder’s choice and a single. The Yankees had another rough game in the clutch (2-for-15 with runners in scoring position).

Positive signs included two hits apiece for Alex Rodriguez and Brett Gardner that raised their batting averages to .289 and .274, respectively. Gardner also had two stolen bases. Hector Noesi took over for Colon and allowed one run in three innings in another effective performance.

The American League East tightened up even more. Only 1 ½ games separate the top four clubs – the Yankees, Red Sox, Ray and Blue Jays. Even the last-place Orioles are just 3 ½ game out of first. This is looking like quite a dogfight.

Freddy’s string of zeroes snapped

Freddy Garcia’s scoreless string came to an abrupt end in the third inning Friday night at Yankee Stadium. He had pitched 14 innings without yielding a run before Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista creamed a 3-2 slider into the second deck in left field for his ninth home run.

There is no shame for a pitcher to be damaged by Bautista, who led the majors in home runs last year with 54 and is proving that 2010 was no fluke with a continued display of offensive muscle in 2011. Bautista entered the game leading the American League in batting average, home runs, runs, times on base, walks, on-base percentage, slugging and OPS (on-base plus slugging).

Bautista’s two-run shot wiped out a 1-0 Yankees lead achieved on Russell Martin’s two-out double in the second that scored Robinson Cano, who led off the inning by working a walk in a nine-pitch at-bat off Toronto lefthander Ricky Romero.

Garcia struggled with his control. He walked two batters in the second but worked out of a jam and also walked the hitter in front of Bautista in the third. Considering how regularly Bautista loses baseballs, walking the guy ahead of him is not smart. What is smart is walking Bautista on purpose with a runner at second if first base is open. That was what Garcia did in the fourth. It was the 27th walk in April for Bautista, setting a Blue Jays club record for the month.

Quite unintentionally, Garcia walked Adam Lind, which loaded the bases. The Jays already had a run in that inning on the leadoff home run by J.P. Arenicibia. Garcia held the damage to that by striking out Juan Rivera looking at a cut fastball on a 3-2 count. The Blue Jays may have had a 3-1 lead, but it could have been worse. Toronto was hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners in the first four innings.

A Mo blow still surprises

Everything was falling into place for the Yankees Tuesday night at Toronto. They got a decent if erratic start from A.J. Burnett, followed by first-rate relief work from David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain and Rafael Soriano.

It was all set up for Mariano Rivera, who entered the ninth with a two-run lead. Mo had been nothing short of perfect in going 7-for-7 in saves before this game, which turned out to one of those examples that proves Rivera is human.

Even when Yunel Escobar began the Blue Jays ninth with a double off the wall in center field, there seemed little reason to panic. Rivera got Travis Snider on a grounder to the right side that allowed Escobar to cross to third. It was the fourth ball on a walk to Jose Bautista that turned the inning around. The pitch was in the dirt and skipped past catcher Russell Martin as Escobar came across the plate to make the score 5-4.

Adam Lind got enough wood on a tight cutter from Rivera to loop the ball into right-center for a single as Bautista raced to third base. John McDonald, who entered the game as a pinch runner for injured second baseman Aaron Hill, pushed a bunt toward first base on a squeeze play, and Bautista beat first baseman Mark Teixiera’s diving, back-handed toss to the plate to tie the score and hang Mo his first blown save of the year.

But the Yankees prevented Rivera from suffering his first loss as well. Jose Molina singled to left, but Lind was held at third and the bases were loaded. Yankees manager Joe Girardi ordered the infield and outfield to play shallow. A ground ball by Corey Patterson to third base was taken near the bag by Eric Chavez, who stepped on it and then threw to first to complete a double play that took the game into extras.

Burnett got a no-decision but remained unbeaten this year (3-0) and in April in his time with the Yankees (8-0). He gave up a long home run to Bautista in the first inning and cost himself a run in the second with an errant throw after trapping a runner off second base. A.J. had some control issues (five walks, one wild pitch), but he worked out of a jam in the fourth and came back with a perfect fifth before two more walks got him into trouble in the sixth.

The bullpen took over from there and impressively. Robertson entered with the bases full and one out and struck out the two batters he faced. Chamberlain set the Jays down in order in the seventh, and Soriano stranded a runner on second in the eighth.

That is the way Girardi likes to draw it up with Mo finishing it off. This time it didn’t work. With Bartolo Colon starting Wednesday night and an open date Thursday, Girardi went with starter Ivan Nova to pitch the 10th.

To add to the unbelievable scenario, the game-winning hit, a two-out double, was delivered by Travis Snider, who was hitless in five previous at-bats and struck out three times and got what was his fourth hit in his past 40 at-bats.

It was a result not uncommon with other closers in other places, yet still a rarity for Rivera, which is an indication of his remarkable career.

Good to be home, eh?

In his sixth season in the major leagues, Russell Martin finally got to play a game in his native land Tuesday night when he squatted behind the plate at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. By the time Martin broke into the majors with the Dodgers in 2006, the Expos were no longer in Montreal where the catcher grew up but had moved to Washington, D.C., and become the Nationals.

Martin was actually born in the province of Ontario, where Toronto is located, so he was close to his birthplace (East York) for the Yankees’ game against the Blue Jays. Martin was plenty busy, too, as any catcher who works with A.J. Burnett comes to know. Burnett had a lot of bite on his curve and slider and spun quite a few of each in the dirt that had Martin scampering all over the place.

In his first at-bat as a big leaguer on Canadian soil, Martin grounded into a double play, although a run did score. Martin began the fifth inning with a double over right fielder Jose Bautista, but he was caught in a rundown on a failed sacrifice attempt by Brett Gardner and tagged out.

Martin threw out a runner, Adam Lind, attempting to steal second base in the third inning. This is an element of Martin’s game that is welcomed by the Yankees. A stolen base by Aaron Hill, who was hurt on the play, in the sixth was only the fourth steal with Martin catching in 123 innings.

It continued to be adventurous behind the plate for Martin after Burnett departed. A rare wild pitch by Mariano Rivera allowed a run to score in the ninth as the Jays cut the Yankees’ lead to 5-4. It was an unfavorable inning overall for Martin, who was robbed of a hit by third baseman Jayson Nix in the top half.

Matters grew worse when John McDonald tied the score with a squeeze bunt that scored Bautista from third base as first baseman Mark Teixeira’s toss to Martin was late.

Too much Bautista

Single, double, walk. That’s not an ideal way for a pitcher to begin his first major-league start. The Yankees staked Ivan Nova to a 1-0 lead Monday night at Toronto in the top of the first only to have the rookie righthander threaten to give it away and more by loading the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the inning.

Nova got a huge boost from Brett Gardner, whose strong throw home after catching a medium fly ball by Vernon Wells nailed Fred Lewis at the plate for a double play that thwarted the rally. Nova handled the third out himself by striking out Adam Lind.

It turned out to be an impressive debut by Nova at a time when the Yankees could use some help in the rotation with A.J. Burnett and Javier Vazquez struggling. Nova eventually lost the lead in the third on a two-run home run by Jose Bautista, which is no crime. After all, Bautista leads the majors in homers with 40. The Yankees tied the score again in the sixth, but Bautista took David Robertson deep in the eighth to create a final score of Bautista 3, Yankees 2.

Bautista was in the middle of things a lot in this game. Leading off the sixth, he took umbrage to a pitch up and in from Nova, which led to some jawing between the two and benches emptying but no punches thrown. Nova retired Bautista in that at-bat, but the Toronto right fielder gained a measure of satisfaction with the bomb off Robertson and celebrated with a pointedly slow trot.

Other than the first home run by Bautista, there was much the Yankees could like about Nova’s first start. He stayed cool after the first-inning jitters and gave up six hits and one walk with three strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. Manager Joe Girardi pulled Nova after he gave up an infield hit to Wells after the Bautista confrontation. It was as much to calm the young pitcher down and have him leave in a positive frame of mind rather than simply an early hook.

The Yankees were actually fortunate to have kept this game close. Toronto starter Brandon Morrow, who came within one out from a no-hitter in a 17-strikeout game against the Rays earlier this month, was overpowering and had 12 strikeouts in six innings. Both his walks came back to haunt him. Morrow walked Nick Swisher with one out in the first, and one out later Robinson Cano doubled him home. With two down in the sixth, Morrow walked Cano, who scored on a double by Jorge Posada.

The Yankees had trouble sustaining an offense. They hit into three double plays.

In a way, the umpires had a worse game than anybody. Plate ump Jerry Meals had several beefs with players over his ball-strike calls, which came to a head in the sixth when he ejected Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar and then did the same to manager Cito Gaston. Swisher and Curtis Granderson also had issues with Meals.

In the third, Bautista home run might have been a solo job except that Escobar got an infield single on what was a questionable call at first base by umpire Mark Wegner. Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira struggled to keep his left foot on the bag as he stretched for shortstop Eduardo Nunez’s throw. TV replays seemed to verify Teixeira’s claim that he toed the bag, but Wegner ruled otherwise.

It was not the best way for the Yankees to open their series against the Blue Jays, who they will face eight more times before the end of the season, including the final series in the last week of September. The Yankees lost a game, but it looks like they may have found a pitcher.

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