You turned on the game 5 minutes after its 1 pm start and it was 2-0 Toronto already. You thought it might be a long afternoon. And then Hyun Jin Ryu and the Toronto bullpen proceeded to shutout the Yanks.
But the good news — it was only 2-0 and then 3-0 throughout most of the afternoon. The 8-0 blowout was only due to Brooks Kriske bringing gasoline to the 9th. Hidden within the final score was a very good start by Jameson Taillon — breaking a streak of a few bad starts in a row — and giving the Yanks some good news.
And Boston blew a big lead and lost to Tampa — so the Yanks are still hanging onto 2nd and the lead Wild Card spot — .5 games over Boston. And Seattle and Oakland also lost — so NY keeps their 3.5- and 4-game lead over them.
1. Taillon Terrific
Jameson Taillon has a tendency to give up homers and it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon when he gave up a homer to 2nd-batter-of-the-ballgame Marcus Semien to left, and then a homer to 3rd-batter-of-the-ballgame Vladimir Guerrero Jr.to the short porch in right.
#PLAKATA NUMBER 40 💥 pic.twitter.com/mvGY1VCBlE
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 6, 2021
Taillon survived two errors by the Yankee infield in the 2nd — one by Gleyber Torres and one by Gio Urshela — but helped himself by picking Lourdes Gurriel Jr.off trying to steal 2nd.
Taillon was helped by Brett Gardner in the 3rd, who raced in from centerfield to make a diving catch with 1 out, runners on 1st and 2nd — and then threw to 2nd for the double play.
After that Taillon cruised. Taillon pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th, 5th, and 6th.
He finished with 7 innings, 3 hits, 3 runs, striking out 5 with 94 pitches thrown. Good news. Taillon got the loss however, to go 8-6 4.41. Not bad.
2. Ryu Better
But Hyun Jin Ryu was better. He shut down the Yankee lineup like they weren’t there — with his 87-MPH cutter, 74-MPH curve, 89-MPH changeup, and 90-MPH four-seam fastball inducing lots of groundouts and weak contact.
Ryu was ripped off of the Cy Young in 2019 when he went 14-5 with a 2.32 — leading the National League in ERA but losing the Cy Young to Jacob DeGrom despite the fact he had more wins, less losses, and a lower ERA than DeGrom.
Ryu is now 13-8 3.77 this year.
3. Toronto Bullpen Shuts Yanks Down
Toronto threw 3 relievers at the Yanks and each pitched a shutout inning:
- Trevor Richards a 28-yr-old 6’2 righty with a 3.42 ERA,
- Tim Mayza a 29-yr-old 6’3 lefty from Allentown, Pennsylvania with a 3.40 ERA, and
- Adam Cimber, a 31-yr old 6’3 righty with a 2.40 ERA.
4. Kriske Gasoline
The game seemed lost already when Brooks Kriske was brought into the top of the 9th, the Yanks down 3-0. He hadn’t pitched in a long time and it seemed unfair to him — the first batter Teoscar Hernandez hitting a homer on the 2nd pitch.
Then came walk, walk, strikeout, foul out and Kriske was an out away — but a walk and a Grand Slam by Marcus Semien that just made it over the wall in left made it 8-0.
Etcetera
Aaron Judge went 0-4 and is officially in a mini slump that has driven his average down to .290, after the red hot streak that rose his average to .301.
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401229121
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