AJ Burnett succumbs to Vernon Wells’ onslaught as Blue Jays destroy Yankees 7 – 5 (Part - 2)
The New York Yankees were always going to face a tough challenge in their series against the Toronto Blue Jays. The first game between the two took place in the Rogers Centre, in front of a crowd of 16,004 fans. The two sides met
on Monday, leading the 7th day countdown to the post – season playoffs. The visiting Yanks have been behind the Tampa Bay Rays by half a game. A one win advantage was needed by the team to put their opponents under pressure.
The game featured Allan James Burnett who played for the Yankees following his starting loss to the Rays in his encounter, last time. Marc Rzepczynski, on the other hand, represented the Blue Jays and his performance made most
of the difference as he struck out 6 hitters in a row and restrained the New York hitting faction through his 5 innings of pitching.
The Yankees started off the innings with bats in hand and it was the Toronto side which started off its scoring initiative in the bottom 1st. Travis Snider began the inning with a ground rule hit double towards the
left side of the park. Yunel Escobar came in next and led Snider to the third base with a grounder out to the second. Jose Bautista then led the bid for the run when he grounded out to shortstop and allowed Travis to run to the dugout with a run in his hand.
The Blue Jays were now 1 – 0 up and the Yankees felt a strong and determined Toronto side turning the s***w on them. Unfortunately, for the Yankees, things had not stopped there and then. John Buck made the scoring run in the
bottom 2nd and he did so with Burnett’s ball throw. The hitter smashed a 431 feet homer to the centre and brought the team up to 2 runs.
The Jays were far from done and they made the Yankees reel as the bottom 3rd inning came into play. Snider was walked and he made his way to the second when Escobar was hit by a pitch. Vernon Wells made his way next
after Bautista flied out. He made his presence known when he greeted Allan James with a 400 feet homer to the left. The shot got Snider and Yunel through for 3 runs in all. The damage was increasing on the New York roster and Lyle Overbay made it 6 – 0 when
he started off with a double to the deep centre and ran home with a single by Buck.
The bottom 3rd saw 4 runs on the board but the session had not ended. Buck was on the first base and he made it to the third off Adam Lind’s single to the right. Joe Girardi had enough of Burnett’s antics and he was
replaced by reliever, Jonathan Albaladejo. The change, however, was not good enough to stop the Jays as Edwin Encarnacion hit a sacrifice fly to the centre and pushed Buck to the last line.
The Yankees were now down 7 – 0 and something had to give for the team. The top 5th saw some response from the visiting hitting faction. Austin Kearns was walked by Rzepczynski and Curtis Granderson followed it up with
a 422 feet homer to the right. The hit brought the team 2 runs and rallied the squad for a comeback.
Unfortunately, the Yankees ran short on runs in the remaining innings. The top 7th saw the hitting faction push on for another run scoring initiative. Francisco Cervelli flied out to the centre to start the inning. Derek
Jeter then reached infield single to first to set the team up for another run. Nick Swisher walked over to the plate to single down the left centre. The two hitters were occupying the first two bags on the diamond and it was Mark Teixeira who came in to produce
a stunning hit in the game. He stunned the fans with a dazzling 423 feet homer to the centre. With Jeter and Swisher running home for the homer, 3 runs came in and increased the gross tally to 5.
The Yankees had put up a good fight but their struggle could not continue into the following innings. The game ended on New York 5 – Toronto 7.
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