Yankees 4, Blue Jays 6: Late inning mistakes doom Yankees

A combination of poor fielding from Brian Roberts and Brian McCann and a poor inning from Chase Whitley and Jeff Francis lost this game for the Yankees. Chris Capuano had a decent outing in his first start for the Yankees. And while the offense didn't go off against Drew Hutchison, it had kept the Yankees in the game. And then in the seventh, a pair of bizarre fielding mistakes from Roberts and McCann put the Yankees in a hole. And it only got worse from there. A bad ninth inning from Whitley and Francis put the game out of reach and gave the Blue Jays a 6-4 win.

After some early shenanigans and runner stranding from both teams, the Yankees scored first in the bottom of the fourth. Carlos Beltran drew a lead-off walk and would score when McCann crushed a home run. After four innings, the Yankees led 2-0.

Capuano had escaped some jams early, but the Blue Jays finally got on the board in the fifth. With one out in the inning, Jose Reyes drew a walk. Melky Cabrera then ripped a double to left field. That scored a run and made it 2-1. After throwing two balls to Jose Bautista, they gave him two free ones for an intentional walk. Dioner Navarro then added a single, loading the bases. Capuano then got Steve Tolleson to fly out to center. However, it was deep enough to score a run and tie the game. Dan Johnson would fly out to end the inning, preventing any more damage.

Shawn Kelley would come out to start the seventh inning, ending Capuano's day. He went six innings, allowing two runs on five hits and four walks. It wasn't a bad outing in his Yankee debut.

Kelley walked Cabrera to start the seventh inning. Bautista then ripped a double to left, putting two on with nobody out. Navarro came up next and he grounded one to McCann at first. McCann looked to third and successfully kept Cabrera there, but he had a brain fart and couldn't get back to first in time to get the out. Kelley came back to strike out Tolleson for the first out. After that, Matt Thornton was brought in to face Johnson. Johnson popped one up to the grass in front of the left side of the infield. Roberts was the closest person to it, but he froze as it was in the air and it would drop in for a single. Cabrera scored and the Blue Jays now had a 3-2 lead. Thornton got the next two hitters out to keep the deficit at just one run. Thornton would pitch a scoreless inning in the eighth after the Yankees couldn't score in the bottom of the seventh.

In the bottom of the eighth, Roberts and Francisco Cervelli drew a pair of one out walks, but the Yankees couldn't bring any runs home, keeping the score at 3-2.

Whitley came out to start the ninth, but got himself in some trouble after walking Bautista and allowing a double to Navarro. He would strike out Tolleson, but the Yankees then went back to the bullpen and brought in Francis. This first batter he faced would be Johnson, who hit a crushing three-run home run to make it 6-2. Francis got out of the inning after that, but the damage had been done.

Casey Janssen came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth. Jacoby Ellsbury picked up a one-out single, followed by a Beltran home run. As expected, the Yankees picked up a couple runs in the ninth, but still fell short. The Blue Jays got the next two outs and picked up a 6-4 win over the Yankees.

The series finale against the Blue Jays will be tomorrow at 1:05 eastern. Shane Greene and J.A. Happ will be the starting pitchers.

Box score.