Yankees' Bullpen Wastes Gem From Chase Whitley
TORONTO (CBSNewYork/AP) — The New York Yankees have used a brilliant bullpen to climb to the top of the American League East. Things didn't work out so well for their relievers Monday night.
Pinch-hitter Russell Martin singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Yankees 3-1, snapping New York's road winning streak at six games.
New York lost despite getting seven scoreless innings from starter Chase Whitley.
"It's unfortunate because we got a great game from Whitley," manager Joe Girardi said. "We just didn't score any runs tonight."
With closer Andrew Miller unavailable after locking down Sunday's win at Boston, and New York nursing a 1-0 lead, Girardi hoped to get two outs from Chris Martin in the eighth before turning things over to Dellin Betances.
Instead, the Blue Jays struck for three runs. Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista chased Martin (0-1) with one-out singles before Edwin Encarnacion greeted Betances with a bloop double that landed just inside the foul line in shallow left.
One out later, Martin grounded an RBI single to third. A diving Chase Headley made the stop in foul territory, but first baseman Garrett Jones couldn't scoop Headley's low throw and the ball rolled away, allowing Encarnacion to score an unearned run.
"I thought we had him," Headley said. "It's a do-or-die play. I didn't even know if I had a chance to catch it. When I caught it, I just got up and threw it as hard as I could and almost got him."
Betances, who blew his first save, had pitched in 12 games without allowing a run, a streak that dated to his season-opening appearance, April 8 against Toronto.
"I don't think there's anything I could have really done different there," Betances said. "They just found holes."
Whitley, who allowed six hits, walked none and struck out six, shrugged off the bullpen's struggles.
"I'll take our chance with this bullpen any day of the week," Whitley said.
Girardi said he wasn't going to ask for two innings from Betances, who's put in a heavy workload in a bullpen that has already logged 92 innings this season.
"We've had a couple of long stretches, which is not helping either," Girardi said.
R.A. Dickey (1-3) allowed one run and three hits in eight innings for his first win in six starts.
"That's probably as good as I've seen him in three years," manager John Gibbons said of Dickey.
Headley said it's never easy facing Dickey's knuckleball.
"It's really tough because it's so much different than anything that you do," Headley said. "You can't really prepare for it."
Brett Cecil finished for his second save.
New York's lone run came in the seventh when Carlos Beltran hit a leadoff double and went to third on Stephen Drew's grounder. After Headley walked, Beltran scored on Jones' RBI grounder.
Both teams threatened in the sixth, but neither could break the deadlock. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a two-out double and Brett Gardner walked, but Alex Rodriguez flied out.
Devon Travis singled to begin the bottom half and went to third on Donaldson's double, but Whitley kept it scoreless by getting Bautista to ground out, fanning Encarnacion and retiring Kevin Pillar on a pop up.
"That was great," Girardi said. "Just outstanding pitching on his part."
CHASING MAYS
Rodriguez, who tied Willie Mays with his 660th home run Friday, went 0 for 4 and grounded into a double play. He's gone 2 for 13 since the milestone homer.
KEEPING SCORE
The Yankees fell to 13-2 when scoring first, and 14-4 when allowing four runs or fewer.
JACOBY SUSPENDED
Blue Jays hitting coach Brook Jacoby has been suspended 14 games for his postgame conduct toward the umpires following an April 29 game at Boston. Joe Torre, Chief Baseball Officer for Major League Baseball, announced the suspension Monday. The Blue Jays intend to appeal Jacoby's suspension and will not comment until their appeal is heard.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Yankees: C Brian McCann and 1B Mark Teixeira got the day off to rest.
UP NEXT
Blue Jays: RHP Marco Estrada makes his first start of the season Tuesday, replacing the recently demoted LH Daniel Norris. Estrada is 1-0 with an 0.84 ERA in six relief appearances.
Yankees: RHP Michael Pineda, who's 3-0 this season but 0-2 in three career road starts against the Blue Jays. Pineda has won his past five decisions, dating to last September.
(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
