NEW YORK — The kids were front and centre as the Toronto Blue Jays took the rubber match of their season-opening series in The Bronx, sending an early message by thoroughly outplaying the New York Yankees in pretty much every aspect of the game for all but one inning over the three games.
Daniel Norris’ first big-league win was backed by Miguel Castro’s first big-league save with Roberto Osuna’s second big-league hold sandwiched in the middle.
Here’s the good and the bad from the Blue Jays’ second win of the season:
THE GOOD
BOUNCING BACK: Wednesday night, Brett Cecil threw a wild pitch with a runner on third, hit a man with the bases loaded, blew a save and lost his closer’s job. Thursday night he was thrown right back into the fire and responded beautifully. Despite admitting that he was a couple of weeks behind the rest of the pitching staff owed to his injury-shortened spring, the lefty was sent out to start the eighth inning, protecting a three-run lead.
He struck out Mark Teixeira on three pitches, popped up Chase Headley and then, after walking Chris Young, struck out John Ryan Murphy to end the inning. Cecil played a big part in the 3.1 innings of one-hit shutout relief provided by the Blue Jays’ bullpen after playing a big part in the previous night’s meltdown.
BASEBALL IQ: It seems like all I’ve done in this space since spring training started is praise the young players, but along with being exceptional talents, the rookies seem to really have it going on between the ears.
The Yankees’ first run of the game scored on an RBI single by Didi Gregorius in the fifth, but as Gregorius rounded first, Devon Travis crept in behind him and was there to get a relay from Danny Valencia, who cut off the throw to the plate. Travis snapped the tag down for the gift out. And by the way, Travis showed his incredibly quick hands earlier in the game, slamming a quick tag down on Jacoby Ellsbury, who was trying to steal second in the third. It was a great throw by Russell Martin to get Ellsbury, but an even better tag.
In the fourth, Norris was in his first spot of trouble, with runners on second and third and nobody out. He struck out Headley for the second out, and Martin jumped up and headed to the dugout — a momentary brain cramp had him thinking the inning was over. Norris saw that and took off to cover the plate, in case the runner at third thought about trying to catch the Blue Jays napping. Groovy thinking.
KEEP THE LINE MOVING: The Blue Jays put up a four-spot in the second inning, taking a lead they’d never relinquish, and they did it in a very un-Blue Jay type way. Five hits, all singles. No extra-base hits, no walks. The inning started with four singles in a row and only one, Josh Donaldson’s first hit as a Blue Jay, was hit hard. Each one moved a runner up only 90 feet. After the fourth hit, Steve Tolleson and Devon Travis cashed a run each with a ground out to the right side and Jose Reyes followed with a two-out single for the final run.
It wasn’t small-ball, but there was no big bopping either. Not that home runs aren’t nice, they’re wonderful, but they can be rare. Notable in the rally was that nobody struck out until Martin did to end the inning. The Blue Jays have seriously reduced the number of high-strikeout bats in their lineup, and it will serve them well.
THE NOT-SO-GOOD
There really was nothing not to like about this one for the Blue Jays. Sure, the offence got quiet for a while after the four-run rally in the second, with six out of seven Jays striking out at one point, but it was another cold, wet, miserable night — just a terrible environment in which to try to hit.
Jose Bautista struck out twice, to give him eight in the three games, but there’s no doubt that he’s going to be an offensive force, as always, and the Blue Jays scored 15 runs in three games without getting a single hit from their best slugger.
Daniel Norris ran out of gas in the sixth, giving up loud solo shots to Alex Rodriguez and Teixeira, but he was up over 80 pitches at that point — and the only player on the field who didn’t wear long sleeves in the near-freezing temperatures — and had pitched very well over the first five frames, including wriggling out of that second and third, none out jam in the fifth.
The real not-so-good is less about Thursday night’s game than the one before, because this was a series that the Blue Jays should have swept. But a series win on the road is never something about which to be displeased.