It would have been natural to think CC Sabathia might need tonight's game to shake off the rust of not pitching for more than 20 days, but the ace returned to the rotation in top form with six shut-out innings against the Jays. CC allowed only four hits and a walk while striking out six batters in his first outing back from the 15-day disabled list.
Joe Girardi was quick with the hook, which is probably to be expected, and Cody Eppley and Boone Logan combined to finish the seventh inning while preserving the shut-out until there was Chad Qualls. Qualls allowed one run on two hits, both doubles, to Jeff Mathis and Edwin Encarnacion in 1.1 innings on the night.
Clay Rapada showed that pitching and fielding take place in two separate parts of his brain and he can only do one at the time when a grounder back to the mound had him looking to second for the double play instead of first for the sure out, allowing the runner to reach to load the bases. This made the game a save situation, which obviously meant Rafael Soriano needed to come into a five-run game. He got J.P. Arencibia to line into a double play to end the game.
Andruw Jones got the scoring started with a three-run homer in the second inning. Nothing further in the way of runs would take place until the Yankees put together a three-run seventh inning off the Toronto bullpen to round out the night. Robinson Cano extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a single, and Jayson Nix reached base three times by way of a double, single, and bunt base hit.
Quite possibly the most entertaining hit of the game came off the bat of Chris Stewart that should have probably been a ground out to third base, but Brett Lawrie's ole' attempt failed and it bounced around in the left field corner before missing two separate fielders on the relay attempt. It was scored a double and an error on the left fielder because Stewart is just magic like that.
With their six runs, the Yankees pushed their streak of scoring at least three runs to 41 games, the second longest in MLB history. They go for the sweep of the Jays tomorrow with Hiroki Kuroda facing Ricky Romero at 1 p.m. before heading out on a West Coast field trip.