Yankees 4, Blue Jays 3: Weirdest rally ever backs up strong start by Michael Pineda

Michael Pineda was great in his first start of 2015, allowing two runs and striking out six batters in six innings of work. His offense very nearly let him down until a series of events that you probably needed to be there to see unfolded in the bottom of the eighth inning that allowed the Yankees to push three runs across to take their first lead of the season. The rally went a little something like this: Chris Young blooped in a double to kick off the inning before a Jacoby Ellsbury single sent him to third base. Brett Gardner was plunked to load the bases and Carlos Beltran struck out swinging. A wild pitch scored Young from third, giving the Blue Jays a chance to intentionally walk Mark Teixeira to set up the double play. Brian McCann was hit by a pitch to drive in the tying run before Chase Headley singled off the pitcher's glove to bring home the go-ahead run. Alex Rodriguez and Stephen Drew failed to do anything with the bases loaded to end the inning, but the called strike three on A-Rod was questionably low. Got all that?

The Yankees bullpen trio of Chris Martin, Dellin Betances, and Andrew Miller pitched three innings with only an unearned run scoring off Betances to give the offense a chance to catch up. Miller ended up getting the first save of the season, which is a decision I'm sure won't be overly dissected at all. Betances wasn't as dominant as we've seen him, but he was good enough to limit the damage of two walks and an error.

Jacoby Ellsbury had quite a night at the plate, walking twice and picking up two hits. He also stole a base and got picked off first by R.A. Dickey. Carlos Beltran got himself an RBI when he drove in Ellsbury with a sac fly in the sixth to put New York on the board. Chase Headley collected two singles, including the very important one to put the team on top in the bottom of the eighth inning. It looked for a while like the offense was going to be terribly disappointing for a second straight game before the Blue Jays basically gift wrapped the game for them. The weather wasn't exactly conducive to offense, being super cold and rainy all game, but Pineda managed to keep things close enough that the offense could scrape together just enough runs to pull it off.

With their first win in the books, the team will try to pick up the series win when CC Sabathia makes his 2015 debut tomorrow in the rubber game of the series at 7:05 pm. The Blue Jays will send Daniel Norris to the mound in opposition.