TORONTO — Could September give the Yankees one last life preserver, from a most unlikely source?
Joe Girardi’s crew picked up a most crucial victory Friday night, 6-3 over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre to rise to 70-63, hitting a high-water mark of seven games over .500 for the fourth time this season and the third time this week.
Chris Capuano pitched 6 ¹/₃ solid inning to pick up his first win as a Yankee, Brett Gardner ended a slump with a huge, seventh-inning double and Jacoby Ellsbury continued his leadoff return celebration with a two-run homer in the seventh, his fourth round-tripper of this road trip, before injuring his left ankle on a ninth-inning slide into home plate and putting his immediate future in jeopardy.
The Yankees owed gratitude as well to the Blue Jays, their longtime American League East foes. And they just might owe their chances at a long-shot playoff run to the division once known as baseball’s best and definitely not that at the moment. Toronto, which fell to 67-67 and is now 7-17 in August, contributed two errors to the Yankees’ game-turning, five-run seventh and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
The day began poorly for the Yankees, as they learned that the comeback of ace Masahiro Tanaka from a tear in the UCL of his right elbow has been delayed, if not derailed, due to Tanaka’s “general arm soreness” It concluded poorly, too, with Girardi staying late to check on the fluoroscope results (negative) on Ellsbury’s ailing ankle. The win in the middle made the work shift tolerable, and while the Yankees played well, they also received considerable help from the opposition.
“We’re just teetering on that edge right now,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, whose job very well could be in jeopardy, said before the game. “We’ve got to get hot so fast.”
Instead, Toronto’s coolness aided the Yankees. Jays veteran lefty Mark Buehrle, who hasn’t beaten the Yankees since 2004, threw six shutout innings before Brian McCann started the seventh with a double, and Carlos Beltran walked.
Gardner, ice cold himself lately, ripped a double off the right-field wall, scoring McCann, and when Steve Tolleson threw a poor relay over third baseman Danny Valencia that a fan reached out and grabbed, Beltran scored, too, giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead, and Gardner advanced to third.
After Ichiro Suzuki reached on an infield single and Chase Headley struck out, Jays catcher (and former Yankees prospect) Dioner Navarro foolishly tried to pick the nimble Gardner off third. Navarro’s effort sailed into left field, Gardner cruised home and the Yankees had themselves an insurance run. Two pitches later, Ellsbury blistered his homer for a 5-1 Yankees edge.
Gardner, asked whether he was surprised Navarro tried to catch him at third, said: “No, not at all. Especially with a left-handed hitter at the plate. He likes to throw.” Yet the play lowlighted a sloppy inning for the Blue Jays, who led the AL East from May 21 through July 3 and now stand closer to last place than first.
Of the Yankees’ remaining 29 games, 18 will come against teams currently below them in the standings — six each against Toronto, Tampa Bay (65-70) and Boston (59-75). In the other 11, they will face clubs currently owning superior records — eight against the Orioles and three with Kansas City (74-60).
For a long time this season, you’ll remember, the Yankees stayed reasonably close to the AL East penthouse due to the division-wide mediocrity. That no longer stands as the case, thanks to the Orioles’ breakout. Yet the Yankees can still capitalize on the mediocrity or worse that plagues the rest of their division.
“I don’t think everyone ever thought this was going to happen in the division,” Gibbons said.
The Yankees control their own destiny in the AL East, thanks to the many games left against the Orioles, whom they trail by seven games, and they don’t control it for the second wild card, which they trail by three games (behind Detroit, with Seattle’s game going late). Nevertheless, the wild card ranks as their more realistic option.
Can they capitalize on the unexpected generosity of their closest neighbors? For sure, it’s a question the Yankees would rather entertain than the health of Ellsbury or Tanaka.