Yankees shine in fifth to top Blue Jays
Posted May 1, 2011 10:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW YORK – It’s a thin line between success and failure for Jesse Litsch right now, and a small handful of bad pitches left him on the wrong side of the ledger Sunday afternoon.
His key mistake in a 5-2 loss to the New York Yankees was a fat 3-2 offering that Curtis Granderson skied over the wall in right field for a three-run blast in a decisive four-run fifth.
Take that one pitch away, and the red-headed right-hander offered up his team six serviceable innings before a crowd of 43,363 at Yankee Stadium.
But falling on the wrong side of his margin for error helped send the Blue Jays (13-15) to their second straight loss in the Bronx, and their concerns extended beyond the final score.
Jose Bautista came out of the game after a walk in the seventh inning due to what the team called neck tightness. No other details on his status were offered. The team is off Monday before starting a series at Tampa Bay on Tuesday.
“I’ll be ready for the next game, that’s not going to be an issue. It’s nothing major, just a tight neck.” Bautista said.
Ivan Nova (2-2) pitched into the seventh and while the Blue Jays had chances against him, he did enough to limit the damage for the Yankees (16-9). Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth for his 10th save.
The Yankees opened the scoring on Mark Teixeira’s solo shot in the first but the Blue Jays responded in the second when Adam Lind knocked one off the foul pole in left-field for his fifth of the season.
They took a 2-1 lead in the third when Rajai Davis walked, stole second and third and then scored on Bautista’s hard grounder to short.
But the Yankees got all they needed in the fifth, as Jorge Posada ended an 0-for-19 run with a leadoff double, moved up on Brett Gardner’s single and scored on Francisco Cervelli’s groundout.
On the next batter, Yunel Escobar fielded Derek Jeter’s grounder to short and tried to gun down the speedy Gardner at third. But Gardner beat the throw leaving two runners on, and Granderson capitalized a few pitches later.
REYES ON THE CLOCK?: Jo-Jo Reyes will start Tuesday’s series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays and Blue Jays manager John Farrell indicated that the left-hander is running out of chances to keep his spot in the rotation.
“I think it’s an important one,” Farrell said of the outing. “I think he would probably agree with that as well, he’s a pretty aware young guy, he’s understanding of the situation he’s in. He would do himself and certainly us a world of good by going out and having a good game.”
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SNIDER SMASH: Travis Snider made his debut with triple-A Las Vegas on Saturday night and went 4-for-4 with a double, a walk and an RBI.
Manager John Farrell was impressed with his line, but cautioned those who are expecting a speedy return to the majors for the outfielder.
“Obviously with the night he had, he’s taking the right approach and really that’s the one thing he can control at this point,” said Farrell. “We made it very clear to Travis that it wasn’t going to be just numbers or performance related, we wanted to see a little bit more direct swing path, not come out and around pitches as much as he showed here. That’s not going to happen overnight.”
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PROPS FOR BAUTISTA: Jose Bautista was the unanimous pick as Honda Blue Jays player of the month for April in voting by the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. He batted .366 with nine homers, 15 RBIs, 28 walks and four stolen bases.
