For the third straight game, the New York Yankees were shut out by the Toronto Blue Jays in what turned out to be quite the pitcher's duel at the Rogers Center. This tightly-contested affair featured a battle of two guys who never seem to get any run support from their offense, C.C. Sabathia for New York and right-hander Marcus Stroman for Toronto. I feel like I've been writing this sentence a lot over the last few weeks, but once again, neither starter would factor into the final decision because the first and only runs of the game were scored after both men were out of the contest.
Both stlSabathia and Stroman kept the game scoreless through the first seven frames, but achieved it in completely different styles. Stroman allowed two walks and just one hit, an Aaron Hicks single that was erased with a double play through the first seven frames. In fact, the Duke alumn did not allow a runner in scoring position until the top of the fourt, as he extended New York's dubious scoreless-innings streak to 25 straight. Sabathia, on the other hand, had runners on base through four of the first seven frames. But, the big lefty was the beneficiary of two crucial double-play balls that kept his line clean through seven solid innings of work.
Although Marcus Stroman allowed just the one hit through seven, he was pulled in favor of Jason Grilli to start the eighth. The revamped reliever came on and allowed the Yankees' second hit of the game, a two-out triple that was roped into right-center by Ronald Torreyes. But Grilli would escape the scoring threat by getting pinch-hitter Billy Butler out on strikes, extending the Yankees' scoreless streak to 26 consecutive innings.
Just like Stroman, Sabathia was pulled for Tyler Clippard to begin the eighth despite pitching seven innings of shut out baseball. With two outs, Clippard allowed a single to Josh Donaldson and a walk to Yankee-killer Edwin Encarnacion. The next batter Jose Bautista obliterated a center-cut Clipperd fastball to deep left for a go-ahead three run homerun. And with the Yankees inability to score runs, a 3-0 score seemed like an 8-0 deficit.
And that deficit proved to be too much for the Yankees to handle, as they were shut out once again by final score of 3-0. I believe it's time for the Yankees to start setting up October tee-times because the 2016 season is over.
The Yankees will try to get back in the win column tomorrow as they face Toronto in game three of the four game set, with first pitch scheduled for 1:07 PM/EST.
