Ellsbury Drives in Three in 5-3 Win Over Blue Jays

Hiroki Kuroda gave up just 3 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings and Jacoby Ellsbury drove in three before leaving with a hamstring injury tonight as the Yankees won their third straight game in relatively stress-free fashion, 5-3, over the visiting Blue Jays. 

In this contest's top of the first, after Derek Jeter made a nice defensive play that forced Jose Reyes between second and third, the Yanks fell behind early on an Edwin Encarnacion two-run shot off the left field foul pole, putting them in a pretty discouraging hole with Mark Buehrle (6 IP, 5 ER) on the mound.

Nonetheless, thanks to a single to left by Brian McCann in the first and a two-run home run by Ellsbury in the third New York was in the driver's seat for the majority of this one, with Ellsbury also getting a man home with a strange play in the fourth.

Facing Buehrle with the bases loaded and one out in that frame, Ellsbury hit a hard groundball to second, scoring Stephen Drew before a Jose Reyes throwing error let Chase Headley cross home, too.

So, within a four frame period this evening the Yankees turned a multi-run deficit into a three-run advantage, one that'd hold until the end due to the aforementioned heroics by Kuroda as well as a pair of late jam-escapes by Esmil Rogers and Adam Warren, who would also record a save in the game with a perfect five-out appearance.