Yankees 2, Blue Jays 4: Offense and Ivan Nova both struggle as Yankees drop series opener in Toronto

Yesterday, two runs on just one hit was good enough for the Yankees to win. Today, the Yankees scored the same amount of runs, and actually got four more hits. However, today was not yesterday. The Blue Jays scored more than the Rays did, and the Yankees started their rally far too late. Today, they came up two runs short, dropping the series opener 4-2.

The Blue Jays' offense got going pretty quickly against Ivan Nova in the first inning. Josh Donaldson picked up a one-out single, and came all the way around to score when Edwin Encarnacion doubled. That gave Toronto an early 1-0 lead.

Two innings later, the Blue Jays added to their lead. Ryan Goins led off the third with a double. After Jose Bautista walked, Donaldson grounded out, moving both runners up. Encarncaion also grounded out, but his scored Goins. Michael Saunders then doubled, scoring another run.  Toronto added to their lead even further in the fifth. Goins led off the inning with a home run to left. Through five innings, it was 4-0 Toronto.

In the seventh, Nova allowed a lead-off double to Kevin Pillar and was removed from the game. Nova went six innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and a walk. Nick Goody came in and cleaned up Nova's mess against the top of Toronto's order.

Through seven innings, the Yankees really hadn't even threatened to score. In the eighth, Starlin Castro drew a lead-off walk. After the next two hitters were retired, Aaron Hicks kept the inning alive with a double, moving Castro to third. Prior to that double, the Yankees had put just one runner in scoring position all game. The Yankees couldn't take advantage however, as Jacoby Ellsbury popped one up to end the inning.

Goody struck out the Blue Jays' lead off hitter in the eighth, before being replaced by Richard Bleier. In his major league debut, Bleier got two quick ground outs to send the game to the ninth inning.

The Yankees finally managed to get some offense going in the ninth inning. After Rob Refsnyder struck out to start the inning, Carlos Beltran was hit by a pitch. Brian McCann then got the Yankees on the board with a home run to straight away center. Mark Teixeira followed that with a double, bringing the tying run to the plate. Castro flew out for the second out of the inning, leaving things up to Chase Headley. He struck out on three pitches.

The good news is, if the Yankees continue to quintuple their hit total from the previous game, they'll get 25 hits tomorrow.

Box score.