Jays Rock Yankees
Posted July 21, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
For the second straight night the Toronto Blue Jays exhibited the strength of their starting rotation, following up a solid outing by Roy Halladay with an equally impressive performance by A.J. Burnett.
Burnett put in 7 1/3 strong innings to help Toronto beat the Yankees 7-3 on Friday, giving the Jays a 2-0 series lead.
The Jays got off to a fast start scoring four runs in the first inning. Troy Glaus had a two-run single and Lyle Overbay added a two-run double to put Toronto in the driver’s seat.
Glaus added his 25 th homer in the eighth before a vibrant Rogers Centre crowd of 40,149.
The win moved Toronto just two games back of the Yankees for second in the AL East. Things weren’t going very well for the Blue Birds heading into the crucial series — they let two late leads slip away against the Texas Rangers and were suffering from internal strife that led to the release of Shea Hillenbrand. But Toronto has more than risen to the occasion against the rival Yankees
On Friday, the story was Burnett, who was routinely throwing fastballs at 98m.p.h. and consistently befuddled the Yanks with curveballs.
New York managed just three runs on six hits and a walk off Burnett, who struck out six.
Scott Schoeneweis got the final five outs for his first save.
