Final
Hill, Blue Jays salvage finale vs. Yankees
Jul 19, 2007 - 10:34 PM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- For nearly 35 innings, big hits with runners in scoring position eluded the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. That trend appeared like it was going to continue until the seventh inning against Chien-Ming Wang.Aaron Hill tied the game with a two-out triple and scored the go-ahead run on a base hit by Gregg Zaun as the Blue Jays salvaged the finale of a four-game series with the New York Yankees with a 3-2 victory on Thursday afternoon.
Toronto lost the first three games of the set - all decided in the sixth inning or later - by going 3-for-30 with runners in scoring position and stranding 37 runners.
For six innings, it appeared the Blue Jays would have little opportunity to improve on those sub-par numbers. They managed just one runner in scoring position and two hits but came alive in the seventh.
"That was the game right there," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "Wang is tough, he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. We broke through and it was big, and the game ended up shaping like it did the other night. It's huge to get out of town, especially (with a win)."
Matt Stairs opened the inning with a double to deep center field and Vernon Wells - who had Toronto's first hit - reached on an infield single. The runners advanced on a long flyout by Troy Glaus, and Toronto scored its first run on Frank Thomas' groundout that deflected off Wang's left ankle.
New York's trainers visited Wang (10-5), and the righthander remained in the game after throwing just one warm-up pitch. Three pitches later, Hill lined a triple to right-center field and then scored on Zaun's base hit up the middle.
"It's a battle every time, you just can't get comfortable against (Wang)," Zaun said. "For us to grind out three runs in one inning like that was huge."
"In that inning, he left a couple of mistakes up," New York catcher Wil Nieves said. "Balls were (located) more middle (of the plate) than we wanted them."
The three-run inning made a winner out of Dustin McGowan (6-5), who allowed a two-run double to Bobby Abreu in the first among four hits in seven innings. He struck out three, walked three and threw 65 of 111 pitches for strikes.
"You look at the way (Shaun) Marcum pitched and (Roy) Halladay pitched, you just wish that you could score more runs for those guys," Toronto outfielder Reed Johnson said. "They're putting out a great effort, and we're not able to cash in with runners in scoring position. Obviously, that's something that we need to improve on."
Casey Janssen, who took the loss Tuesday, retired the side in the eighth. Jeremy Accardo hurled a scoreless ninth to record his 14th save in 17 opportunities.
Wang failed to record his career-high eighth straight victory as he lost for the first time since allowing three first-inning runs in a 3-1 defeat to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on May 26.
"Of course I'm disappointed," Wang said. "If I didn't give up the three runs, we win the game."
"Anytime we have Wang on the mound, we feel we have a good chance," Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez said. "When you're up 2-1 in the seventh at home, you feel like it's a must-win."
A day after being blanked for six innings by Marcum, the Yankees wasted little time taking a lead. Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter opened the game with walks and scored when Abreu lined the first pitch from McGowan into left-center field for a double.
"It's a 2-0 game, even though you're certainly short-sighted in the fact that you won two games like this the last two days, coming from behind," New York manager Joe Torre said. "This is one of these games where you wished the result was different, but there's not a whole lot you can look at and say, 'I would have done something different or I wish this would have happened.'"
- AL
FINAL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
- - - - - - - - - - - -
TORONTO 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 3 7 2
NY YANKEES 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 (FINAL)
BATTERIES: TOR - DUSTIN MCGOWAN, CASEY JANSSEN (8TH), JEREMY ACCARDO (9TH) AND
GREGG ZAUN
NYY - CHIEN-MING WANG, MIKE MYERS (8TH), LUIS VIZCAINO
(9TH) AND WIL NIEVES
WP - DU
Jul 19 3:56 PM - AL
AT NY YANKEES - SCORING UPDATE
SINGLE BY GREGG ZAUN SCORED AARON HILL.
SITUATION: 3 RUNS IN, G ZAUN ON FIRST, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: TORONTO 3
NY YANKEES 2 TOP, 7TH
DUE UP FOR TORONTO: H CLARK (.227, 0-FOR-2)
Blue Jays vs. YankeesJul 19 3:14 PM - AL
AT NY YANKEES - SCORING UPDATE
TRIPLE BY AARON HILL SCORED VERNON WELLS.
SITUATION: 2 RUNS IN, A HILL ON THIRD, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: TORONTO 2
NY YANKEES 2 TOP, 7TH
DUE UP FOR TORONTO: G ZAUN (.231, 0-FOR-2)
Blue Jays vs. YankeesJul 19 3:05 PM - AL
AT NY YANKEES - SCORING UPDATE
GROUND OUT BY FRANK THOMAS SCORED MATT STAIRS.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, V WELLS ON THIRD, 2 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: TORONTO 1
NY YANKEES 2 TOP, 7TH
DUE UP FOR TORONTO: A HILL (.273, 1-FOR-2)
Blue Jays vs. YankeesJul 19 3:03 PM - AL
AT NY YANKEES - SCORING UPDATE
DOUBLE BY BOBBY ABREU SCORED JOHNNY DAMON AND DEREK JETER.
SITUATION: 2 RUNS IN, B ABREU ON SECOND, 0 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: TORONTO 0
NY YANKEES 2 BOTTOM, 1ST
DUE UP FOR NY YANKEES: A RODRIGUEZ (.309, 32 HR, 92 RBI)
Blue Jays vs. YankeesJul 19 1:23 PM
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