Brett Gardner: Yankees Outfielder Hit By Fan Throwing Home Run Back

On an aggravating afternoon for the Yankees, Brett Gardner slammed down his helmet with two hands after grounding out with a runner on second to end the third inning.

Jennings said, “We won’t put him out there until we know he is 100 percent”.

The New York Yankees find themselves in an unusual yet familiar position with a Blue Jays team – a team revivified through key trade deadline moves – on their heels.

Cashman said no one in the organization figured the division was wrapped up when the Yankees had a six-game lead. Turns out, it was a trio of splendid pitching performances that closed the gap in the AL East. “It seems more attainable”. Price, in his 15 innings, allowed just one earned run, six hits, and five walks while fanning 18 batters. Not since May 1999 against the Angels had the Yankees been blanked in two straight – that stretch of 2,665 games between consecutive shutouts was the longest in major league history, the team said in citing research by the Elias Sports Bureau. “There’s no talk of panic for us”. But we should also be careful not to swing too far in the opposite direction and ignore team records entirely. We’re in first place for a reason. “In fact, last week was the highest selling week that we’ve had, our year-over-year sales are up around 30 per cent”. “We trust our team”.

Throwing balls back onto the field after the road team hits a home run is a long-standing tradition in Major League Baseball.

Estrada kept New York’s unsafe lineup off balance all day.

The righthander was lifted after 89 pitches with two on in the seventh.

The Jays also recently added Cliff Pennington from the Arizona Diamondbacks, so we’ll soon see if the Blue Jays magic touch works on utility infielders as well. “It’s been a tough spot for us”.

I guess I have an affinity to knock all things Toronto, cuz that’s what you do in this part of the True North Strong and Free.

Probably the biggest moment in the Blue Jays’ 2-0 win over the Yankees on Sunday came when Blue Jay reliever LaTroy Hawkins was summoned from the bullpen to deal with a unsafe one-out, two-on dilemma left behind by starter Marco Estrada as he exited in the seventh inning.

Just two weeks ago, the Yankees appeared to be gearing up to return to the postseason with the A.L. East divisional banner in tow.

Will that become the norm?

“It’s not fun as a hitting coach when you go through something like this”, hitting coach Jeff Pentland said.

“It’s live in the clubhouse, there’s a lot of energy in here, a lot of good energy”, Hawkins said.

“The season’s never a straight line”, he said.

Bautista connected in the fourth, launching a mammoth drive that struck the facing of the second deck in left field.

Prior to all the changes, the Blue Jays were treading water around the break-even mark while leading the American League in run differential, having outscored their opposition by 94 runs over the first 101 games while sitting at 50-51.

What this means is that the Blue Jays have been right there in nearly every single game. Unfortunately for them the team ran into a red hot Blue Jays to open the week losing all four games before losing two of three against the Cleveland Indians.