Yankees 3, Blue Jays 4: Toronto powers their way past New York with three homeruns

The Yankees got their hits today, but it wasn't enough for them to beat the Toronto Blue Jays, who used three homeruns to power their way past New York, 4-3, in the finale of this three-game series on Sunday afternoon at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Brett Gardner put the Yankees up 1-0 just two pitches into the game with a solo homerun to right field off of Blue Jays starter JA Happ to lead off the ballgame.

The Yankees doubled their lead in the top of the 4th inning to make it a 2-0 game. Martin Prado singled to open the frame; after a couple of outs, Chase Headley and Francisco Cervelli hit back-to-back singles, the later scoring Prado for the game's second run.

Gardner continued his great day at the plate the very next inning, slapping a triple into the left-center field gap. Jose Reyes' relay throw to third base sailed into the Jays' dugout, giving Gardner homeplate free of charge, extending the Yankees' lead to 3-0.

Gardner would go on to double in his next at-bat, needing just a single to reach the cycle. He wouldn't get it though, grounding out to second base in his final at-bat of the game, in the 9th inning.

Yankees starter Brandon McCarthy was cruising along through the first five innings, giving up just two hits -- he even struck out the side in the 5th. His stuff was looking good and his was putting together another great start, but that was until Melky Cabrera and Jose Bautista hit back-to-back solo homeruns to quickly make it a one run game, at 3-2.

Then to open the bottom half of the 7th, Edwin Encarnacion tied the game with a solo blast to left field off of McCarthy, who walked the next batter before Joe Girardi ended his day and brought in Dellin Betances to get out of the inning. Betances got out of the inning, but not before Steve Tolleson, who pinch-ran for Dioner Navarro then stole second base, scored on a single to right field by Munenori Kawasaki, just barley making it into the plate before the tag could be applied by Cervelli.

McCarthy was charged with all four runs on five hits. He walked a pair and stuck out three on 90 pitches in six-plus innings.

After working out of the 7th, Betances came back out for the 8th inning and worked around a two-out single by Adam Lind to toss a scoreless inning. In all, he tossed 29 pitches.

Starting the game on the bench with a slightly injured ankle, Jacoby Ellsbury pinch-hit for Zelous Wheeler with one out in the top of the 9th inning, and doubled into shallow right field to put a runner on second base. Ichiro Suzuki pinch-ran for Ellsbury, and moved to third on the Gardner groundout. And then batting for the final time in Toronto, Derek Jeter lined out to second base to end the game.

After finishing up this seven-game road trip in which they went 3-4, the Yankees head back home to the Bronx, where they will open up a three-game series with the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.

Shane Greene will face off against Joe Kelley in that Tuesday night matchup at 7:05 p.m. ET.

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Game 111: Facing Cy Young

After six games on the road against last place clubs, the Yankees are back home in Bronx where they welcome the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers for a four game series that kicks off tonight at 7:05 p.m. in Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees return home after going 3-3 on that trip, which made stops in Texas and Boston. New York dropped three of the first four games before taking the final two games against the Red Sox over the weekend, including a 8-7 win last night at Fenway Park.

Detroit, meanwhile, comes in town town boasting one of the best offenses in baseball, scoring 4.74 runs per game. The Tigers are coming off of a three game sweep of the Colorado Rockies after dropping five of six games heading into that series over the weekend.

With the Tigers coming into Yankee Stadium, Yankees fans might get a chance to see Joba Chamberlain pitch against in the Bronx. The former Yankees reliever signed with Detroit during the offseason after spending the first seven years of his career in pinstripes. Well, it's almost the same guy coming back -- he's got a full-on beard on his face now.

Tonight's lineup against Detroit:

LF Brett Gardner
SS Derek Jeter
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Carlos Beltran
C Brian McCann
3B Chase Headley
2B Stephen Drew
RF Martin Prado

Pitching matchup preview:

Right-hander Brandon McCarthy gets the ball tonight for the Yankees in the series opener.

Acquired from Arizona in a trade at the beginning of July, McCarthy is 3-0 with a 2.55 ERA in pinstripes. He's turned into a great pickup by Brian Cashman, who only had to give up Vidal Nuno to get McCarthy. With everybody else in the rotation going down to injuries, he's been exactly what they needed.

McCarthy, though, is coming off his roughest outing with the Yankees, allowing four runs and nine hits in six innings against the Rangers on July 29.

The Yankees' offense will have a very tough task ahead of them over the next few days, facing the last three Cy Young awards winners, and it begins tonight with the reigning winner, right-hander Max Scherzer, who has a 5.17 ERA in three regular-season starts at Yankee Stadium.

Scherzer -- 5-0 with a 2.08 ERA over his last seven outings -- in is coming off of a start in which he tossed seven innings of one-run ball against the White Sox on Wednesday night at Comerica Park.

Yankee Notes:

* The Yankees have placed RHP David Phelps on the disabled list with tendinitis in his right arm. Phelps left Sunday night's start against the Red Sox after just two innings because of what the team was then calling inflammation in his elbow. Joe Girardi says that Phelps won't pick up a ball for two weeks.

In a corresponding move, the Yankees recalled RHP Matt Daley from Triple-A Scranton. With Phelps on the DL, the Yankees will need to find a start to Friday night against the Indians.

* Masahiro Tanaka played catch today, making 25 throws from 60 feet. He said that he felt good and didn't feel anything wrong with his elbow. He doesn't really know when he might be back, but will continue his path back to the mound by throwing again tomorrow.

* Michael Pineda almost certainly won't be the man pitching for the Yankees on Friday night. He threw 58 pitches in a rehab outing on Sunday, and Girardi doesn't think he's stretched out enough. Pineda told reporters that he'll pitch again on Friday, but isn't sure where it'll be.

* MLB announced today that Brett Gardner has been named the AL Player of the Week after hitting .478 (11-for-23) with three doubles, five homers, seven RBI, five walks and eight runs.

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Yankees 8, Red Sox 7: Yankees come-from-behind again to beat Boston

Brett freakin' Gardner, man. For the 5th time this week, the Yankees' outfielder went yard, this time a solo shot that gave the Bombers a one-run lead in the 6th, as they would hold on to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 8-7, on Sunday night at Fenway Park of the finale of a three-game series.

David Phelps started on the bump for the Yankees in this Sunday Night Baseball showdown, and he was, well, not good, giving up five runs in the first two innings.

Brock Holt and Dustin Pedroia opened the bottom of the 1st with back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners ahead of David Ortiz, who hit a sac-fly to score Holt, putting the Sox up 1-0. Phelps then walked Yoenis Cespedes and gave up a single to Mike Napoli to load the bases before Daniel Nava hit a two-run single to make it a 3-0 game. He got out of the inning a batter later when Xander Bogaerts grounded into a double play.

The Yankees came back to tie the game in the 2nd inning, getting all three runs back against Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz, who walked both Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann, and also served up a single to Carlos Beltran to load the bases with nobody out.

After Chase Headley struck out, Stephen Drew grounded into a fielder's choice at second base, scoring Teixeira for the Yankees' first run. Martin Prado drew a walk against Buchholz to again load the bases for Gardner, who hit a two-run double to right field to tie the game at 3-3.

In the bottom half of the 2nd, Holt grounded into a fielder's choice at second base after Christian Vasquez hit a one-out single, and then Pedroia hit a two-run homerun over The Monster off of Phelps to up Boston up 5-3.

Phelps was done after two innings, and everybody thought that is was because of the fact that he gave up five runs on six hits, while throwing 53 pitches in just two innings. However, the team later announced that he left because of right elbow inflammation, and that he be re-evaluated in New York this week. Sigh.

Drew connected with a double off of Buchholz in the 4th inning driving in McCann, who doubled to open the inning, to pull the Yankees to within a run.

But in the bottom half of the inning, with Chase Whitley now in the game for the injured Phelps, Ortiz hit a monster two-run homerun to center field that extended Boston's lead to 7-4. At this point, you were probably thinking, "can the Yankees actually win this?" Well, you probably also forgot that Buchholz was still on the mound for the Red Sox.

After retiring the first two batters of the 5th, Buchholz gave up a double to Beltran, who picked up two hits for the sixth game in-a-row, then walked McCann ahead of Headley, who hit an RBI double that scored Beltran. A batter later, it was Drew, the former Red Sox, that hit a game-tying two-run single to make it a 7-7 game.

Buchholz was done after giving up five runs on eight hits with five walks in five innings, giving the ball to Craig Breslow to open the 6th inning. A lefty-on-lefty matchup, Breslow served up an inning-opening homerun to Gardner, his 15th  -- FIFTEENTH -- homerun of the season, giving the Yankees to 8-7 lead that would go on to win with.

Following Phelps, Whitley gave up two runs in two innings of work, then the Yankees' bullpen showdown Boston for the final five innings. Esmil Rogers, making his Yankees debut after being claimed on waivers on Thursday, pitched three scoreless innings without giving up a hit. Dellin Betances did his thing in the 8th, striking out a pair. And then David Robertson closed things out in the 9th, picking up his 29th save of the season, even after walking Vasquez to open the frame.

The Yankees will head back home to the Bronx, where they will welcome the Detroit Tigers town, as the two teams will open up a four-game series on Monday night at 7:05 p.m. Brandon McCarthy will be on the mound for the Yankees, facing off against reigning Cy Yound award winner Max Scherzer.

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Yankees 12, Rangers 11: Yanks cling on for extremely close one-run win

As it turns out, Brett Gardner is not the only hitter in the Yankees' lineup that knows how to drive in runs.

After falling behind by three runs in the 3rd, the Bombers exploded for a season-high seven runs in the 6th inning, adding more to that later in the game, as they would go on to beat the Texas Rangers, barely clinging on for 12-11 on Tuesday night in Arlington.

Following a two-homerun performance on Monday night -- both solo homeruns and the only runs scored by the Yankees in the game -- Gardner led off Tuesday night's matchup with a solo homerun to center field off of Rangers starter Nick Martinez, his 12th homerun of the season and third leadoff dinger this season.

Right-hander Brandon McCarthy was on the mound for the Yankees to start the game, and he was working well through the first 2 2/3 inning before the Rangers -- not surprisingly -- glued together a two-out rally that put them ahead.

Alex Rios and Adrian Beltre hit back-to-back two-out singles ahead of Jim Adduci, who hit a single to center field that scored Rios to tie the game. A batter later, after McCarthy threw a wild pitch that moved both runners up 90 feet, JP Arencibia doubled to deep right field, bringing in both runners to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead.

Two innings later, in the 5th, Arencibia, who had a monster night at the plate as the seems to love hitting against the Yankees, hit a solo homerun to right field off of McCarthy, making it a 4-1 game.

McCarthy, throwing 108 pitches, was able to make it through six innings, giving up the four runs on nine hits, while walking just one and striking out three. He picked up his third win with the Yankees, and has been quite a nice pickup by Brian Cashman.

The Yankees had runners on first and second base with one out in the 1st inning, but Martinez was very tough to score off of after that, going on a stretch of retiring 13 of 14 hitters before the Yankees' lineup finally woke up in the 6th.

Gardner, who has been on fire lately with four more hits in five at-bats in this game, opened the 6th with a double, then Jeter, who had two hits of his own, reached on an infield single to put runners on first and second with nobody out. After Jacoby Ellsbury popped out to the third base side, Mark Teixeira walked to load the bases. Carlos Beltran made it a one-run game with a two-run single into right field, then McCann brought in the tying run on a sac-fly to center field.

After Martinez walked Chase Headley, Ron Washington went to his bullpen, but that didn't help much. Zoilo Almonte greeted the reliever, Shawn Tolleson, with an RBI single, then Brendan Ryan followed with a two-run double that made it a 7-4. Back to the top of the order, Gardner hit a fly ball into the right-center field gap that was dropped after the center fielder and right fielder collided into each other, as Gardy reached third base on the play.

The Yankees added two more runs in the 7th inning -- which, both top and bottom halves, seemed to last forever. After loading the bases with nobody out, Headley hit a one-out single into right that extended the lead to 9-4, then Almonte scored Teixeira on a fielder's choice for the Yankees' 10th run of the game.

Texas, though, climbed back into the game in the bottom half of the 7th inning when Adam Warren loaded the bases with just one out. Joe Girardi brought in Dellin Betances, who is usually lights out as you know. However, the first batter Betances had to face was Arencibia, who made it a two-run game with a grand slam to left field.

Teixeira, in the 8th, came through with the hit that would end up saving the night for the Yankees. Making his first start in over a week because of a lat strain, Teixeira hit a two-run homerun -- his 18th of the year -- to push the Yankees' lead to 12-8, putting them back up by four.

Chase Whitley gave up a run in the 8th on a Beltre groundout, the David Robertson entered in the 9th to close out the game with a three-run lead. Robertson struck out the first batter of the inning before putting the next two batters on. He walked the bases loaded a couple of batters later with two outs, then gave up a two-run single to Elvis Andrus that made it a one-run game. After walking Rios to, again, load the bases, be got Beltre to fly out on a fly ball to the warning track in left to end the game.

That was wayyyyyyyy too close.

The Yankees and Rangers will finish up this three-game series on Wednesday night at 8:05 p.m. ET, when the pitching matchup will be Hiroki Kuroda against Colby Lewis at.

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Yankees 2, Rangers 4: One bad inning hurts David Phelps and the Yanks

Entering an important week for the New York Yankees, playing six games against last place ball clubs with the trading deadline mixed in, the Bombers' road trip did not get off to a great start. After taking an early 2-0 lead against starter Yu Darvish, the Rangers came back to score four runs in the 5th, which was all they needed in a 4-2 win over the Yanks on Monday night in Arlington.

Let's get the positive note out of the way: with three hits tonight, Derek Jeter reached 3,420 career hits, which put him ahead of Carl Yastrzemski for 7th on the all-time hits list. So congrats to Jeter.

The Yankees collected 11 hits in the game, but only managed to score two runs, and they might not have done that if Brett Gardner wasn't in the lineup for them to face Darvish, who in case you haven't heard is owned by Gardner, who has four career hits against the Japanese ace -- all four homerun, including two on Monday.

Both solo homeruns, the first put the Yankees up 1-0  in the 3rd inning on a shot to right field. The second, which came in the 5th, was a blast to center field, putting the Bombers up 2-0, giving David Phelps a decent, but not great lead to work with.

Phelps was cruising along nicely through the first four inning, throwing just 55 pitches. Phelps had only given up three hits before reaching the 5th, where things got ugly.

Chris Gimenez opened the inning with a single before Phelps retired the next two hitters, making it seem like it would be another short inning. However, Gimenez had moved to second on a grounded, then scored on a Elvis Andrus double to put the Rangers on the board. Alex Rios, who the Yankees have looked at, singled a batter later to put runners on the corners, then Adrian Beltre doubled to score Andrus as the tying run. Phelps walked Jim Adduci to load the bases, then JP Arencibia drove in Beltran and Rios on a singles to put the Rangers up 4-2. All of that with two outs.

The nightmare inning for Phelps finally ended a batter later, and he followed up with scoreless 6th inning to finish off his night, in which he was charged with four runs on eight hits, walking one and striking out three on 96 pitches (66 strikes).

His counterpart, Darvish, was not overly phased by the two Gardner homeruns. He still managed to get through seven innings, giving up just the two runs on seven hits, with a walk and eight strikeouts.

After Phelps, Shawn Kelley came out of the bullpen for Joe Girardi, tossing 1 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up just two hits. And then Matt Thornton was called upon to get the final out of the 8th, which he did by striking out Rougned Odor.

Some game notes: Brian McCann was at first base yet again with Mark Teixeira out, and all I can say is that the Yankees are far better defensively with Teixeira at first ..... speaking of Teixeira, he came off of the bench to pinch-hit in the 8th inning for Brian Roberts and singled to left field in the at-bat; I'd have to guess that Tex will be in the lineup on Tuesday ..... Gardner and Jeter at the top of the lineup tonight: 6-for-9 with three extra-base hits and no strikeouts, while the rest of the lineup:  5-for-28 with no extra-base hits and eight strikeouts.

The Yankees and Rangers continue this three game series on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET. Brandon McCarthy will be on the mound for the Bombers, while the Rangers will counter with right-hander Nick Martinez.

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

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Yankees 2, Rangers 1 (F/5): Yankees beat Darvish in rain-shortened game

The Yankees entered Wednesday night's game at Yankee Stadium struggling mightily at the plate to the tune of just four runs in 23 innings over the past two games against the Rangers.

With Yu Darvish on the mound, one might think the Yankees were in real trouble. Of course, conventional wisdom doesn't apply to the 2014 Yankees.  New York defeated Darvish and the Rangers, 2-1, in a rain-shortened 4 1/2 innings Wednesday night.

The Yankees sent David Phelps to the mound and he was outstanding once again, as he picked up his fifth win of the season and lowered his ERA to 3.77. Phelps allowed just one run in five innings, while striking out three on 72 pitches -- 44 strikes. Darvish recorded one out in the fifth inning before the torrential rainfall began.

The Rangers ace surrendered four hits, two runs and five strikeouts on 72 pitches -- 48 strikes. Phelps and Darvish both put up two scoreless innings to start the game, as both offenses’ looked rusty after Tuesday night's 14-inning marathon.

 Leonys Martin and Chris Gimenez opened the third inning with back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners, Rougned Odor followed by grounding into a double play to score Martin to give Texas a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the inning, Francisco Cervelli led off with double down the left field line for the Yankees first hit of the night. Brendan Ryan grounded out to second to move Cervelli to third and the Yankee catcher was able to tie the game on a Darvish balk.

The next batter, Brett Gardner homered off Darvish to right field to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. The solo blast was Gardner's career-high 10th home run of the season, which tied the Yankee outfielder for second on the team in home runs with Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann.

The Yankees will look to finish off a series win in Thursday's afternoon start at 1:05 p.m. Brandon McCarthy will be on the mound for New York, while Colby Lewis will take the hill for Texas.

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Yankees 1, Orioles 3 (F/5): Rain-shortened loss sends Yanks into the break at .500

Tonight's game against the Baltimore Orioles called off after four and a half inning, meaning that the O's have won the series finale, 3-1, to head into the All-Star break with a five-game lead over the Yankees. Not really the way you want to head into the break if you're the Yankees, but after a two hour rain delay, you'll take anything to make it stop.

Brett Gardner put the Yankees on the board with a solo homerun to lead off the game against Kevin Gausman. The Yankees' offense was pretty quite after that until what would be the end of the game in the 5th, ending with only four hits.

Gausman pitched all five innings for the Orioles, giving up a run on four hits, striking out two without walking a batter.

Chase Whitley, back in the rotation with Masahiro Tanaka on the DL, held the Orioles scoreless before the first three innings before giving up Baltimore's three runs in the 3rd.

Nelson Cruz walked to open the 4th, then Chris Davis went the opposite way to left for his 15th homerun of the season, a solo shot that put the O's on the board and give them a 2-1 lead. JJ Hardy followed with a double; Whitley retired the next two hitters before Johnathan Schoop singled to center to score Hardy, making it a 3-1 game.

David Huff took over from there, replacing Whitley, who was charged with three runs in five hits, with two walks and four strikeouts.Huff retired Nick Markakis to end the 4th, then walked Steve Pearce to open the bottom of the 5th right before the game went into a two-hour rain delay.

With this rain-shortened loss, the Yankees will head into the four-day break at 47-47 -- obviously not what Brian Cashman and company envisioned when they spent nearly half a billion dollars over the offseason, but with the starting rotation all but completely dead, it could be worse. You never want to say that you're happy with your team being at .500, but I'll take it with this Yankees team and the way things are going.

The Home Run Derby is tonight in Minnesota, and the All-Star Game is on Tuesday, Derek Jeter and Dellin Betances will be there -- Tanaka won't be, he decided he'll skip the game. Jeter will be the starting shortstop for the AL, as you know, and I'm sure they'll do something special for him in his final Mid-Summer Classic.

Until then, I'll see you guys throughout the week on the blog, hopefully. The full Yankees squad will be back on Friday when they open up a series against the Cincinnati Reds at Yankee Stadium.

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Game 90: Brandon McCarthy makes his Yankees debut

If you're just joining us today, the NY Post is reporting that Masahiro Tanaka has been flown back to New York to get his right arm checked out. Given all the injuries to their starting rotation that the Yankees have had to deal with this season, this would be the worst of them all.

Brian McCann told reporters this afternoon that he didn't notice anything was wrong with the Tanaka last night while he was giving up a career-high five runs on 10 hits; just said the biggest thing was that he was leaving pitches up in the zone.

The Yankees, who have won four of their last six games after dropping last night's contest against the Indians, 5-3, have not missed the playoffs in back-to-back years in the Wild Card era. We would almost certainly be on the bad side of history if anything series has happened to Tanaka's arm.

Anyway, there is still a game tonight, and the Yankees will be taking the field with the Indians as they try to gain control of this series with the third of four games taking place this evening at Progressive Field.

Tonight's lineup against Cleveland:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury
2B Brian Roberts
C Brian McCann
1B Mark Teixeira
DH Carlos Beltran
RF Ichiro Suzuki
LF Zoilo Almonte
3B Zelous Wheeler
SS Brendan Ryan

* The Yankees have recalled Zoilo Almonte from Triple-A Scranton today. However, no corresponding move has been announced and the Yankees are currently listing 26 players on the lineup card. It's possible that they could be planning to put Tanaka on the DL -- with the All-Star break next week, he'd only have to miss one or two starts.

* Brett Gardner is out of lineup tonight with what he's calling a lower abdominal strain, according to reporters. He thought it might have been hernia, but a doctor confirmed it wasn't.

* Meanwhile, Beltran is back after missing the past couple of games with some swelling in his knee.

Pitching matchup preview:

Acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, right-hander Brandon McCarthy will make his Yankees debut tonight against the Indians.

McCarthy is coming to New York after going 3-10 with a 5.01 ERA over 18 starts with Arizona this season. McCarthy was 1-10 with 5.38 ERA in first the 16 starts this season. However, he's won his past two outings, allowing 3 earned runs with 12 strikeouts over 12.2 innings.

Meanwhile, right-hander Josh Tomlin gets the start for the Indians tonight, looking to improve on his 4.11 ERA this season. Aside from a complete-game one-hitter against the Seattle Mariners on June 28, Tomlin has allowed five earned runs in three of his last four outings.

To make things worse for him, Tomlin is 2-4 with a 5.45 ERA in seven starts at Progressive Field this season.

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Yankees 5, Indians 3: Shane Greene impressive in first big league start

With Vidal Nuno shipped off to Arizona and Brandon McCarthy still on his way to meeting the team in Cleveland, the Yankees turned to right-hander Shane Greene on Monday night after recalling him from Triple-A before the game to make his first big league start. Greene was quite impressive in his third stint in the majors this season, tossing six innings of two-run ball to help the Yankees down the Indians, 5-3, in the opening of a four-game series this week at Progressive Field.

After jumping out to a 9-0 lead over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, the Yankees, again, wasted no time putting runs on the board against Indians starter Justin Masterson, who didn't last very long in this one.

Brian McCann and Brian Roberts opened the 2nd inning with back-to-back doubles to put the Yankees up 1-0. Ichiro Suzuki, who had three hits on the night, singled to left -- Roberts rounded third base to come home, but slipped trying to stop; the cut-off throw, though, was thrown to second base, where Ichiro was tagged out in a rundown for the first out of the inning. Masterson walked Kelly Johnson and hit Francisco Cervelli to load the bases. After Brett Gardner singled home Roberts to make it a 2-0 game, Derek Jeter walked with the bases loaded to force in the third run of the inning.

Masterson was lucky enough to get out of the inning without allowing another run when Jacoby Ellsbury hit a hard groundball down the first base line that, Carlos Santana dove to make the stop while tagging first base then throwing to the plate to nail Cervelli for the final out.

But Masterson didn't get to last much longer. He walked Mark Teixeira to open the 3rd, then McCann singled to put runners on first and second base with nobody out. Terry Francona decided that he had seen enough, pulling Masterson from the game after two-plus inning, eventually being charged with five runs on six hits, with three walks and a strikeout.

Kyle Crockett entered for the Indians, gave up an infield single to Ichiro that scored Teixeira, which made it a 4-0 game. He balked to move both runners up 90 feet, then hit Johnson to load the bases. The Yankees, at least, got a run with the bases loaded this time, grounded into a fielder's choice at second base to score a run and keep the inning alive. However, Gardner struck out a batter late -- Gardner, by the way, went 3-for-4 and raised his batting average to .289 on the year.

Crockett wasn't charged for the two runs, and the Indians' bullpen gave up none at all, getting through the final six innings after the 3rd without giving up a run. The Yankees came out firing away in the first couple of inning, but couldn't really do anything after Masterson was removed. At least it was enough runs to get the job done.

It was also enough for Greene, who recorded a quality start in his first big league start. He looked good in six innings of work, giving up just two runs on four hits, while striking out two without a walk. His stuff was moving well early in the game, and I think that he may have earned himself another starter if the Yankees were planning to give him one.

Greene had a no-hitter going through 4.2 innings. The first hit of the game was also the same hit that broke up the shutout -- a solo homerun off the bat of Nick Swisher, deep into the left field seats to put Cleveland on the board, making it a 5-1 game.

Cleveland made the game a little bit closer against Greene on the 6th, scoring their secodn run against him on an Asdrubal Cabrera single that scored Chris Dickerson, who singled with one out and moved to second base on a Jason Kipnis groundout. Two batters later, with runners on 1st and 2nd, Greene got Santana to fly out to right field to end the inning.

David Huff took over on the mound for the Yankees to start the 7th. He worked a scoreless inning, then Yan Gomes opened the 8th with a solo homerun that pulled the Indians within two runs. Huff then hit Mike Aviles, forcing Joe Girardi to bring in his All-Star reliever, Dellin Betances, who was pitching for the first time since Friday. Betances set down six of the seven hitters he face -- only one strikeout -- to pick the six-out save, the first save of his big league career, while sealing Greene's first major league victory.

The Yankees and Indians will continue this series tomorrow on Tanaka Tuesday, as Masahiro Tanaka will go for his 13th win of the season, matching up against right-hander Trevor Bauer at 7:05 pm ET.

Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images

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Yankees 6, Red Sox 0: Vidal Nuno and the bullpen shutout the Sox

Facing a Red Sox lineup that has under-performed this season, Vidal Nuno pitched probably his best outing of the year, tossing 5.2 shutout innings with just two hits -- retiring 10 straight before walking David Ortiz with two outs in the 6th -- in the Yankees' 6-0 win over the Red Sox on Friday night in the Bronx.

Before the game, Yankees manager Joe Girardi was forced to answer more questions about not skipping over Nuno tonight after the off-day on Thursday, and he wasn't very pleased to answer them. Having pitcher poorly of late, Nuno was much better tonight, picking up just his second win of the season.

The Yankees' offense gave Nuno an early lead with a run in the 1st inning. Derek Jeter, a day after turning 40 years old, picked up the first of his two hits on the night with a single to right field, the Jeter way. Jacoby Ellsbury followed with a double against his former team, then Mark Teixeira hit a sac-fly into left field that scored Jeter for Teixeira's 40th RBI of the season.

In the 3rd, the Yankees tried playing for a run but came away with none. After Kelly Johnson walked, Brett Gardner bunted him over. Jeter singled and Ellsbury walked to load the bases ahead of Teixeira, who struck out, and Carlos Beltran, who grounded out to end the inning.

An inning later, Johnson and Gardner took Red Sox starter Brandon Workman deep on back-to-back blasts, pushing the Yankees' lead to 4-0.

Brian McCann opened up of the bottom of the 4th with an opposite-field single, then after a couple of outs by Brian Roberts and Ichiro Suzuki, Johnson smacked a two-run homerun, his fifth of the season -- he now has more then Robinson Cano (4), in case you were wondering. A couple pitches later, Gardner hit his 7th of the year.

The lead was more than enough for Nuno, who was curving his way through Boston's lineup with much ease. The only hits he gave up to Jonny Gomes, who singled to open the 2nd, and Brock Holt, who doubled in the 3rd. As you could have guess, neither hit lead to anything for the Sox. For a guy that has been awful at homerun this season, Nuno pitched really well, and quieted down some of the haters for at least another start.

As for Workman, he had a decent night on the mound for Boston, and it was made better by the fact that he was able to complete seven innings, giving up four runs on seven hits, with two walks and five strikeouts on 108 pitches.

Dellin Betances took over for Nuno with two outs in the 6th, walked Mike Napoli to begin his night, then set down the next Red Sox hitter to get out of the two on, two out jam. Betances then worked around a two-out double by Stephen Drew in the 7th, to finish off his night with 1.1 innings of scoreless ball.

After Adam Warren worked his usual scoreless 8th inning, needing just 10 pitches to set down the side in order, McCann delivered a 3-1 pitch from Craig Breslow deep into the right field seats for a two-run homerun, bringing in Teixeira, who singled, to make it a 6-0 game.

With the Yankees up six, there was no need to send David Robertson, so Matt Thornton took the ball and tossed a quick three up, three down to finish off the game, which took under three hours to complete -- a very rare occurrence for a Yankees-Red Sox game.

The series continues on Saturday with Tanaka Day, as Masahiro Tanaka takes the mound for the Bombers, going up against Jon Lester at 7:05 pm.

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Yankees 7, Blue Jays 3: Brian McCann drives in five runs with a homerun and triple

It's been a long time since the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, and it's been an even longer time since Mark Buehrle beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium -- 10 years, to be exact -- and neither of those streaks would come to an end on Wednesday night, as the Yanks took care of business against the Jays for the 15th straight time at home with a 7-3 win.

Chase Whitley delivered another solid start on the mound, giving the Yankees five innings of two-run ball to pick his up third consecutive win, as he hasn't lost an outing this season.

At the plate, Brian McCann did almost all of the damage for the Bombers, driving in five of their seven runs with a two-run homerun and even a bases clearing triple (!) in the 7th.

Alfonso Soriano gave Whitley and the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the first inning with an RBI single that drove in Brett Gardner, who singled to center field to open the game with one of his four hits on the night -- his first four-hit game since June 9, 2013 (5th in his career), and his first game with at least three hits this season.

Whitley worked his way through the first three innings with just two hits marked to his credit before running into trouble in the 4th inning, where the Jays would score a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead.

Jose Bautista singled to open the inning, but was quickly wiped off of the bases when Edwin Encarnacion grounded into a fielder's choice at second base for the first out. Brett Lawrie was hit on the hand by a pitch, putting runners on first and second. After Juan Francisco struck out, Dioner Navarro and Rasmus lined back-to-back run-scoring singles to bring in the two runs.

The Blue Jays would not hold that lead for long, however. After Carlos Beltran opened the bottom of the 4th inning with a single, then McCann followed with a line drive homerun to the short porch in right field -- his 8th homerun of the season -- to put the Yankees back up, 3-2.

McCann's shot was the definition of a Yankee Stadium homerun, in that it was noted on Twitter that the ball would not have left the yard in any other Major League ballpark.

Whitley then followed up by working around a one-out walk to Melky Cabrera in the 5th inning to get out of the inning, Whitley's final frame of the night. Again, this was another solid outing for the youngster, facing a very dangerous Toronto lineup that, combined with Yankee Stadium, could do some real damage.

They only managed two runs on five hits against him. Whitley's walk to Cabrera in the 5th was his first walk in his last five innings, spanning over 33 innings. He also struck out two while tossing a career-high 95 pitches.

Adam Warren took over in the 6th inning and two two straight three up, three down innings. He struck out the side in the 6th, and got three straight groundouts to Brian Roberts in the 7th. A lot of people have mentioned lately that Warren should be moved into the rotation for Vidal Nuno, while I think that would be just silly. Joe Girardi would be losing a very valuable arm in his bullpen by making that move.

The Yankees scored four insurance runs in the bottom of the 7th inning against the Jays' bullpen to give their bullpen some more breathing room.

Ichiro came off of the bench with the bases loaded to face the left-hander Brett Cecil, drawing a walk to force in a run, making it a 4-2 game. After Beltran popped out, McCann lined a ball into the right-center field gap that just barely missed the glove of a diving Rasmus, rolling far enough for McCann to leg out just the third triple of his career.

Up by four in the 8th, Girardi called upon Jose Ramirez to face the middle of the Jays' order. That didn't go very well, as Ramirez gave up back-to-back doubles to open the inning -- the second being an RBI double by Bautista -- and quickly ending his night.

Dellin Betances took over from there and set down three of the next four Blue Jays, two on a pair of filthy breaking balls, to get out of the 9th inning. David Robertson recorded save No. 18 on the year a three up, three down nine, striking out a batter, too, which he does a lot in the 9th inning these days, to seal out the game and pull the Yankees to within just 2 1/2 games of the Jays in the AL East.

The finale of this three game series is Thursday night in the Bronx, with David Phelps and Drew Hucthinson squaring off at our normal 7:05 pm ET.

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Yankees 3, Blue Jays 1: Gardner's homerun backs up Tanaka's 10 punch-outs

Masahiro Tanaka limited the Toronto Blue Jays to just one run on five hits over six innings, running into a high pitch count before handing the ball off to his bullpen, and thanks to a two-run homerun off of Brett Gardner's bat, the Yankees defeated the Jays, 3-1, for a 14th straight time at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, and a milestone win for Joe Girardi.

The Blue Jays become one of the few teams that Tanaka has faced twice this season, joining the Chicago Cubs as the other team. He matched up against them for his first major league start back on April 4, picking his the win with a solid start that afternoon.

Tuesday night's game started off the same way for Tanaka and the Yankees as that April 4 contest when Jose Reyes took Tanaka deep into the right field seats on the field pitch of the game. Melky Cabrera also welcomed Tanaka to the big leagues with a lead-off homerun on April 4.

But Tanaka was not phased by the homerun, and didn't let another Blue Jay score for the rest of the game, giving up just another four hits after that -- two of them in the 1st inning.

Gardner put the Yankees up 2-1 in the bottom of the 3rd inning with a two-run dinger off of Marcus Stroman. After Kelly Johnson, who finished 2-for-3 while starting at third base over a slumping Yangervis Solarte, doubled, Gardner lined a ball off of the right field foul pole, his 6th long ball of the season.

The Yankees worked Stroman out of the game early after just 3.2 innings when he reached the 98 pitch mark. He was only tagged with the two runs on four hits with three walks and a pair of strikeouts.

Mark Teixeira doubled the Yankees lead in the 5th inning with an RBI single up the middle of the diamond against Aaron Loup, driving in Derek Jeter, who opened the inning with an infield-single, moved to second on a wild pitch, then moved to third on a Jacoby Ellsbury groundout.

As I said, the Reyes homerun did very to deter Tanaka, who, for the second straight outing, struck out 10 batters, dominating the Jay's lineup with his filthy splitter. He only -- only -- walked two, but still threw a lot of pitches  -- 104, to be exact -- in six innings.

Dellin Betances took over to begin the 7th and, efficiently, worked two perfect inning, striking out three without putting a runner on base. Just another solid outing for a great young pitch. He paved the way for David Robertson, who picked up his 17th save of the season after working around a two-out triple by Munenori Kawasaki.

For Girardi, this was his 600th win as manager of the Yankees since taking over as the skipper in 2008. He joins Joe McCarthy (1,460), Joe Torre (1,173), Casey Stengel (1,149), Miller Huggins (1,067), and Ralph Houk (944) as just the 6th manager in franchise history to achieve that feat.

The Yankees and Blue Jays will continue this series on Wednesday night with Chase Whitley and Mark Buehrle on the mound for the respective teams at 7:05 pm ET.

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Gardner drives in two runs, Yankees fall to the Rays

Brett Gardner gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead in the 4th inning on a single to left field, driving in two runs to extend the Bombers' lead over the Tampa Bay Rays.

But as it turned out, that would not be enough for the Yankees to overcome a four-run 5th inning by Tampa, due in large part to Robert Coello, who gave up a pair of homeruns in the inning, as the Yanks would go on to lose to the Rays, 5-4, Wednesday in Port Charlotte, Florida.

Coello opened the 5th inning by hitting Mikie Mahtook with a pitch, then gave up a single to Ben Zobrist, who homered in the first inning of the game. The next batter, Desmond Jennings, tied the game with a three-run homerun to right field.

After getting Even Longoria to groundout for the first out of the inning, Coello served up another homerun, this time solo shot Matt Joyce to give the Rays a 5-4 lead. Coello was pulled after that, giving up four runs on three hits in 1/3 of an inning -- his spring ERA is 48.60.

The Yankees had taken a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning of this game after Eduardo Nunez and Ichiro Suzuki collected back-to-back one-out single, setting up an RBI single by Russ Canzler, who has been playing a lot of first base this spring in place of Mark Teixeira, who expects to play in his first game tomorrow, and a RBI groundout by Kelly Johnson.

Tampa answered back in the bottom of the 1st when Zobrist went deep off of Adam Warren, who got the call for the Yankees.

Warren wasn't at his best once against in his second start of the spring, but it wasn't start that hurt his chances of making the club out of spring training. He left after just 2.1 inning, giving up one run -- the homerun -- on four hits, while striking out two, and he didn't walk anybody.

“I was a little ill about the walks last outing, so I kind of really focused on that,” Warren said. “I still want to get in better counts, get ahead of batters a little better. I’ll keep working on that. I still need to refine some things, but that’s what spring training is for. I’m trying to take the next step each outing, refine some things and get ready for the season.”

Zobrist's homer made it a 2-1 score, which would hold up until Gardner's two-out, two run single in the 4th inning off of Rays reliever Grant Balfour. Gardner finished the game 1-for-3.

Dellin Betances made his third appearance of the spring, and he pitched very well once again, tossing 1.2 scoreless innings. He has yet to give up a run in the 5.2 innings his pitched this spring. According the the Rays radio announcers, Betances was commanding his offspeed pitches well, leading to his success against Tampa today.

There are a lot of spots in the Yankees' bullpen that are up for grabs at the moment, and the Yankees were hoping that Betances, and maybe Cesar Cabral, could put together a good enough spring for the Yankees to want him in Houston Opening Day. If he continues to pitch well, he can be an important are in the bullpen this summer.

“I think he’s more comfortable,” Austin Romine said of Betances. “Last year was big. He got up, got some experience, and I think his comfort level is a lot better. He’s able to make adjustments pitch to pitch, hitter to hitter.

"Today was case in point: he went out, lost his feel for his slider, got it back the next at-bat. He makes good adjustments. Before he would just try to grip it and throw it harder. Now he’s settling down, hitting his spot. He’s a lot more productive. … There’s a lot more life on the ball. Pitches are good. Offspeed is in the zone. He’s got more fastball command. I really can’t say enough about him.”

Matt Daley threw 2/3 of a scoreless inning, giving up two hits. Yoshinori Tateyama was pretty good again today, tossing two scoreless innings. And Jim Miller struck out two in a clean 8th inning of work.

Yangervis Solarte picked up another hit today, going 1-for-3. Zoilo Almonte went 1-for-2. But today's offensive standout was Nunez, who went 3-for-3.

The Yankees head to Clearwater tomorrow to face the Philadelphia Phillies for the second time this spring. Masahiro Tanaka will be on he mound for the Bombers, making his first start of the spring, but his second appearance overall. Mark Teixeira and Alfonso Soriano are also expected to make their spring debuts tomorrow.

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog

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