Jays lose again but much closer game with Yankees

Yankees v Jays. Game two of three. Another rough beating for the Jays last night, try again today but with five rookies in the lineup and against the Yankees, not sure this team is capable of doing it. If Laffey can hold them to under three runs maybe a chance. Lineups: Yankees. Jeter, Swisher, Teixeira, Cano, Jones, Granderson, Nix, McGehee, Stewart and Garcia pitching. Jays: Davis, Gose, Encarnacion, Escobar, Cooper, Sierra, Johnson, Gomes, Hechavarria and Laffey pitching. Look at all the rookies. Not good first week in August. Huge crowd here today, looks like full house with the fifth deck filling up above the hotel rooms in left. Lots of Yankees fans as well but the rainy weather outside a perfect place for the afternoon. Let’s hope Jays can give the home fans something to cheer about. Top 1st: Jeter, getting a break today and DHing. Strikes out swinging, one for Swisher, grounds to Hechavarria at third, throw to Cooper at first, two down for Teixeira, same again, grounds to Hech throw to Cooper, three up and down for Laffey. Good start. Bottom 1st: Davis, strikes out swinging, one down. Gose, strikes out swinging. Gose overmatched here by Nova. Encarnacion, fly ball to centre, Granderson makes third out. Three up and down for Nova also. Top 2nd: Cano, grounds to third, Hechavarria throw to Cooper, one down. Jones, fly ball to Gose in centre, two down. Granderson, Laffey hits him. One on two down for Nix, grounds to Hechavarria throw to Johnson at second to get Granderson and third out. Bottom 2nd: Escobar, fly ball to centre for Granderson, one down for Cooper, Lines it hard to left but right at Nix at short for the out. Sierra, strikes out swinging. Top 3rd: McGehee, grounds to Escobar, throw to Cooper, one down. Stewart fly ball to left, Davis makes the catch. Jeter two down, grounds to Hech at third, safe at first. Swisher, two down one on, takes strike three. Bottom 3rd: Laffey doing his job, time for the hitters to help him out, Johnson, strikes out swinging, one down for Gomes, connects but lines out to Granderson in centre. Two down for Hechavarria, grounds to short, Nixon throw to Teixeira for the out. Both pitchers doing their job, but it would be nice one day to see a lineup without five AAA Vegas players. Top 4th: Teixeira, lines it up the middle to Gose. There goes the no hitter. One on for Cano, fly ball to Gose in centre, one down. Jones, ball four, two on, one down for Granderson, pops it up to Hechavarria, two down. Runners at first and second. Nix, singles to left, here comes Teixeira to score, 1-0 Yankees. Jones to third on the play. McGehee two on, two down. Oh boy, hammers this one to left and into the seats, here comes, Jones, here comes Nix and McGehee, 4-0 Yankees. Stewart, lines to Gose in right, stand up double, Laffey having rough time here. Here comes Walton. Jeter one on two down. Perfect, grounds to Johnson throw to Cooper for the out and to end the inning but Yankees have broken this one open. Bottom 4th: Top of the order. Davis leading off. That will do, lines it up the middle to Granderson, one on for Gose, balk by Laffey moves Davis to second before he could steal. That is the third balk called in Jays games this week. Strange. Gose strikes out swinging for the second time. Might be better for him to bunt Davis to third or let Davis steal third and then bunt. Ah well. Encarnacion, lines to Swisher in right, here comes Rajai anyway to score, Jays strike back right away 4-1 Yankees. Escobar, ouch Garcia hits him high on the shoulder, that would hurt. Two on, Jays have something going here, here comes Yankees pitching coach. One down two on for Cooper, strikes out swinging. Two down for Sierra, grounds to Teixeira steps on the bag for the out. Pitiful. Top 5th: Swisher, pops it up to Cooper, one down. Teixeira, ball four. Cano, oh no ball four. Back to back walks, Laffey in trouble here. Jones two on one down. Pops this one up to Cooper at first, two down. Runners hold. Granderson, grounds to Cooper takes it himself and Laffey gets out of it. Bottom 5th: Johnson leading off, singles to Granderson in centre. Gomes, strikes out swinging. One down, Hechavarria, lines hard to left bur Jones makes the out, two down. Davis, grounds to Teixeira at first for the third out. Johnson and his leadoff single left out there. This is so frustrating to watch game after game. We cannot fault the rookies they are learning on the job unfortunately. But still so frustrating to see the leadoff guy not even move one base. Top 6th: Nix, grounds to third, Hech throw to Cooper for the out. McGehee, lines to Davis in left, stand up double. Stewart, one on one down. Pops it up to Escobar at short, two down. Jeter, fly ball to right and this one bounces over the wall, ground rule double here comes McGehee to score 5-1 New York. Swisher, Jeter in scoring position, ball four. Two on two down. That is it for Laffey. Loup now pitching, Teixeira grounds to Hechavarria, throw to first to end the inning but Yankees have added one more. Laffey did not pitch badly at all, one bad inning and a couple of pitches. The problem is there is no run support for the errors. That is killing the Jays game after game. Bottom 6th: Gose, takes strike three. Garcia has his number today. Encarnacion, not getting anything here, ball four. How many walks has Edwin had since Jose was injured? Sure respect but frustrating not to see him get a chance to hit. Escobar, one down one on, NO Garcia hits him for the second time. Umpire immediately points to the benches, not sure why Jays bench is warned ? Surely not for Granderson hit earlier ? But then again why is Escobar hit twice ? The last guy who is a threat to any team let alone the Yankees. But two on, one down for Cooper. Grounds to Teixeira throw to second to get Escobar. Edwin to third, Cooper at first. Sierra, grounds to second throw to first and Jays once again unable to bring them in. Top 7th: Cano grounds to Escobar, throw to Edwin, one down. Jones strikes out swinging, two down. Granderson fly ball to Gose in centre for third out. Easy three up and down for Loup. Bottom 7th: Johnson leading off, takes strike three, one down for Gomes, grounds to McGehee at third, throw to Teixeira, two down. Hechavarria, hammers this one to centre wall but Granderson runs this one down for a great catch. Two great hits by Hech but nothing to show for it. His time will come. Top 8th: Jenkins replaces Loup who did an excellent job in relief. Nix, grounds to Hechavarria throw to Cooper, one down. McGehee fly ball to Davis in left. Two down. Stewart pops it up to Hechavarria. Another excellent inning by Jenkins. Bottom 8th: Davis, here we go, doubles to Granderson in centre. One on and how long will Rajai stay at second? Gose, strikes out swinging, again not even a bunt here John ? Gose had no chance with Garcia tonight but again you now his turn will come. Encarnacion, there goes Rajai and safe on the throw. Stolen base number 32. Edwin grounds to third, here comes Rajai to score, Encarnacion out on the throw to first. 5-2 Yankees.Two down for Escobar. No here comes Girardi, that is it for Garcia. Yes he lasted into the 8th but take a closer look at the numbers. Yes 10 strikeouts but 7 of them were by the rookies from Vegas. Including four by Gose. Just the facts friends. Not as impressive as one would think and makes us wonder what would have happened here today with Lawrie, Rasmus, Bautista, Lind, and Arencibia, (plus Snider of course) hitting. Robertson now pitching. Vizquel now pinch hitting for Escobar, could be that hit on the elbow by Garcia needs treatment. Oh my, grounds to Cano at second, to Nix, over to Teixeira, double play ball to end this one. I expect McCoy will be in the lineup tomorrow. No more room for sentimentality for Vizquel. It is bad enough with all the rookies in the lineup. Top 9th: Vizquel at third and look who is at short? Finally Hechavarria is playing his position. Maybe an injury to Escobar right now might give this young man his big chance, certainly his bat is heating up. Brandon Lyon in to wrap this up. Jeter grounds to Vizquel, throw to Cooper at first, one down. Swisher strikes out swinging. Two down for Teixeira. Ball four. One on two down for Cano, takes strike three. Jays bullpen once again showing the strength. Once Jays hitters are back this team is going to surprise. Bottom 9th: Ichiro in left for Jones. Yankees big gun Soriano out to finish this one off. Girardi still taking no chances that Jays will come back. Cooper, fly ball to Ichiro in left, one down for Sierra, strikes out swinging, two down for Johnson, grounds to Cano at second, throw to Teixeira to finish this one off. The good: Not as bad as last night and in fact only a couple of pitches to make one bad inning. Laffey was ok for most of his outing. The bullpen once again coming through 3.1 shutout innings. The very good: Sellout crowd despite the poor record of the Jays right now. It will be interesting to see the crowd on Monday evening against the White Sox. The not so good: The Vegas rookies. Still outclassed and out of their depth against good pitching. Four of them went 0-11 today. Jays five hits but they were by Davis, Encarnacion and Johnson. 2-8 with runners in scoring position. Still unable to bring the runners in when it counts, but once again with five rookies Garcia was able to pitch around to get to them.