TORONTO — And just like that, the Yankees went from no energy to high energy.
Their four-run eighth inning propelled them to a come-from-behind, 4-3 victory over the Blue Jays on Wednesday night at Rogers Centre and, for the moment, quieted the chatter both internally and externally about the team’s flatness or fight or any of that garbage.
Joe Girardi and his players surely wish it were as easy to raise the mathematical pit to which they have submerged themselves.
“There’s still a long way to go,” Girardi said. “But it’s a lot better feeling in this clubhouse than it’s been for a while.”
Understandably. The Yankees (80-72) stopped their four-game losing streak and turned down the noise for at least 24 hours about their heart and their desire and all that junk. For seven innings, they put up just three hits against Toronto starter J.A. Happ, whom they usually treat as their personal piñata; Happ entered the night with a 6.06 ERA in six previous starts against the Yankees. They looked just as energy-free as Alfonso Soriano had casually accused them of being in Tuesday night’s defeat to R.A. Dickey.
And when never-nervous superstar Robinson Cano stopped running after two steps on a sixth-inning grounder, putting his hands on his hips as the ball surprised him by staying fair and going to Jays first baseman Adam Lind for the out … well, you know what the reaction is like when Cano does stuff like that. Let’s just say it’s a lot more passionate and fiery than Cano, one of the best players in baseball even if he isn’t scrappy, ever seems.
Hence the importance of the eighth-inning rally, both its result and its process. It was ninth hitter and defensive specialist Brendan Ryan who started the eighth with a ground-rule double to left field, and that led Jays manager John Gibbons to the reasonable conclusion he should lift Happ after 101 pitches and go to his good relievers.
That didn’t work because Curtis Granderson grounded a single to left field against southpaw Aaron Loup, causing Gibbons to turn to All-Star right-hander Steve Delabar, who struck out Alex Rodriguez. Cano recovered from his previous at-bat by drilling a line-drive, run-scoring single to right-center field, and fittingly, Soriano laced an RBI double to right field. Then it was the long-forgotten Vernon Wells, afforded a rare opportunity against a righty pitcher, who pulled a two-run double to left field, catapulting the Yankees over their opponents.
That the Yankees survived Blue Jays rallies in both the eighth and ninth innings, with David Robertson recording two outs and Mariano four (for his 44th save), perfectly fit the narrative for these Yankees, who have won with great difficulty and lost with unusual frequency.
“It’s fun just to do it,” Wells said. “We needed a win. Things had been ugly over the last few days. Guys are still battling. It’s obviously frustrating going through periods like that, but hopefully, this is something that can kick-start something special for us.”
Said Soriano: “We’ve got to just score early in the game. Not late. You don’t want to put extra pressure on the team. Thank God we scored four runs and got the win.”
“This team never quits,” Girardi proclaimed, and you’d roll your eyes except he’s pretty much right. The Yankees could have rolled over numerous times in this adversity-filled season. It looked like they were well into their roll until the eighth. Yet here they are, still playing meaningful baseball as they wrap up this three-city, 10-game road trip on Thursday night.
They don’t control their own destiny against Tampa Bay, Texas, Cleveland or Baltimore, and the Royals kept even with them at 80-72 by defeating the Indians. There’s no point in worrying about the math anymore.
Changing the math takes time. It might take all 10 of the Yankees’ remaining scheduled games, and it likely will turn out they needed more time than they had.
The mood and the vibe and all that drivel, though? That can be overturned in a snap. The Yankees have changed their energy for the better once more. Let’s see how long they can ride this wave to at least keep their followers intrigued, if not ultimately satisfied.