Burnett baffles Yankees and gets enough offense in win

New York's Johnny Damon misjudges Marco Scutaro's game winning double

Toronto ace A.J. Burnett has had an up and down year, but conjured up a masterpiece, stifling the Yankees in a 2-1 win for the Blue Jays. Burnett collected his 16th win, striking out 13 New York hitters, including Alex Rodriguez three times, over eight innings, while allowing just one run on five hits. The Blue Jays nearly wasted Burnett’s outing, but took advantage of a misplayed fly ball by Johnny Damon to garner the winning run in the bottom of the eighth. With a runner on first, Marco Scutaro crushed a fly ball to center field. Damon ran back to the warning track and seemed to have the ball judged, but his leaping attempt was all for naught. The ball went right off the top of his glove, dropping for a double, scoring Joe Inglett.

Alex Rodriguez’s bid for a golden sombrero (0-4, 4 strikeouts) was broken up by something much more costly. He racked a single to lead off the inning against Toronto closer B.J. Ryan, but got too greedy as he tried to stretch the sure single into a double. Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay made a brilliant throw to gun down Rodriguez, subsequently ending any chance of a Yankee rally. Jason Giambi and Xavier Nady proceeded to strikeout and flyout, respectively, ending a bitter loss by New York.

For the Yankees, the two-out eighth inning comeback by the Blue Jays ruined a good start by Darrell Rasner and the return of slugger Hideki Matsui. Rasner had struggled of late, but pitched brilliantly into the 7th inning before giving up a tying solo homer by Adam Lind. He allowed just three hits over his 6 2/3 innings of work, but his teams’ offense couldn’t muster much off Burnett. Matsui, who has been on the DL since June, will take a while to get comfortable at the plate, as he started out after the two month absence going 0-3 with a strikeout. New York has struggled to find offensive consistency, and will need Matsui’s bat to come alive quickly if they want to dig themselves out of the holes they’ve dug in both the AL East and the Wild Card. The combination of Damon, Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Jason Giambi went 1-15 with 11 strikeouts. Giambi did what Rodriguez couldn’t and collected the golden sombrero, part of a disappointing offensive display by New York.

The Blue Jays have always given the Yankees troubles, and showed in this game that they posses the ability to play spoiler down the stretch, especially when they get such pitching by Burnett.