Yankees 1, Blue Jays 2: Joe Girardi gave away the game

The first Yankees-Blue Jays matchup could have been a gigantic blowout as both teams represent the top two offenses in baseball. It ultimately proved to be a pitchers duel for a majority of the game, though the beginning seemed like anything but. Unfortunately, it all came to an end when Joe Girardi made a questionable managerial decision in the 10th inning and it cost the Yankees the game.

In the first inning, Nathan Eovaldi surrendered a solo home run to Josh Donaldson to make it a 1-0 game. Thankfully, the Yankees quickly fought back when Mark Teixeira hit a home run in the second inning after a lengthy video review proved that the ball would have gone over the wall if a fan had not touched it on the way down. The score stayed at 1-1 through the majority of the game.

In the end, after an unfortunate start to the game, Nathan Eovaldi only allowed one run on five hits and two walks while striking out three in 6.1 innings. He was lifted in the seventh inning when Ryan Goins reached on a missed catch and an error by Mark Teixeira and he surrendered a hit to Kevin Pillar. Justin Wilson came in to strike out Ben Revere before giving way to Dellin Betances. The righty walked Troy Tulowitzki before getting Josh Donaldson to ground out and end the threat. Dellin would go on to surrender a hit, a walk, and collect two strikeouts in 1.1 innings. Andrew Miller came in for the ninth inning and promptly gave up a hit to Chris Colabello, but ultimately got out of the inning unscathed.

Bizarrely, Joe Girardi didn't let Andrew Miller pitch the top of the 10th despite throwing only six pitches in the ninth.He may have thrown 17 pitches yesterday, but he should be able to go another inning in a must-win game. Also, instead of putting in someone like Chasen Shreve, the best pitcher left in the bullpen, Girardi allowed Branden Pinder to pitch to the heart of the Toronto order and Jose Bautista hit a go-ahead solo shot to make it a 2-1 game in favor of the Blue Jays and there it would stay. The Yankees offense was more effective against R.A. Dickey than it was against Steven Wright, which isn't saying much, as Brett Gardner, Carlos Beltran, Chase Headley, and Didi Gregorius all collected hits, while Mark Teixeira got two.

Now that the Yankees have lost game one of the three-game series, their lead in the division has dropped to 3.5 games. Hopefully the Yankees will be able to make up for this very winnable game and win the next two to take the series, but this game was within their grasp before Joe Girardi did something very questionable that put the Yankees at a disadvantage. It was a really unfortunate end to an important game that went down to the wire. Hopefully tomorrow turns out to be better.