Bullpen Struggles in 6-4 Loss to Blue Jays

Since the All Star Break concluded, the Yankees' bullpen has been pretty dominant.

The 8-man group, arguably the best in baseball, had given up just 2 earned runs in the last eight games going into today, a big reason why the team's gone 7-1 during that stretch.

Nonetheless, they do have bad performances every once in a while, something that unfortunetaly happened this afternoon, with Shawn Kelley, Chase Whitley, and Jeff Francis surrendering four trips around the bases as the Yanks fell to the Blue Jays 6-4.

In this one's seventh inning, after Chris Capuano impressively threw 6 frames of two-run ball, the aforementioned Kelley loaded the bases with just one out, causing him to be removed in place of Matt Thornton. 

In his outing, surprisingly, Thornton did throw the ball well, but due to a bloop infield single by Dan Johnson one of the runners he inherited found a way home, breaking a 2-2 tie.

On that play, Yanks' Second Baseman Brian Roberts originally looked like he was going to catch it, a perception proved incorrect when the flare ended up dropping in the grass, letting Melky Cabrera come in from third while putting Kelley in line for the loss and Jays' Starter Drew Hutchison (6 2/3 IP, 2 ER) for the win.

No, Kelley probably didn't deserve to take the fall, but after the Whitley/Francis duo combined to allow three more runs in the top of the ninth he did, with a late two-run home run from Carlos Beltran in the last frame and another one in the fourth from Brian McCann being all New York would get from their offense on the day. 

Yes, Derek Jeter picked up a pair of singles and Chase Headley once reached on a shift-beating bunt, although considering none of those knocks affected how the contest played out they don't really matter, an unfortunate truth.