Yankees at Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays will be happy to get home after going 3-7 on their 10-game trip, but the competition is not getting any easier. The Blue Jays will try to cool the red-hot New York Yankees when the division rivals square off in the opener of a three-game series on Monday.
The Yankees swept the Boston Red Sox over the weekend to begin their six-game road trip and are winners of 13 of their last 16 games. The most impressive part of the stretch has been the work of the pitching staff, which held powerful Boston to a total of nine runs in the three games over the weekend and is surrendering an average of 2.8 runs in the last 16 contests. Toronto is at the opposite end of the pitching spectrum, having allowed an average of 6.3 runs while dropping seven of its last 10. The Blue Jays built up a 6-1 lead in the fourth inning on Sunday only to give it all back in the fifth and suffer a 10-7 loss at Cleveland.
TV: 7:07 p.m. ET, YES (New York), SNET (Toronto)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Yankees RH Chase Whitley (1-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Blue Jays RH R.A. Dickey (0-3, 5.23)
Whitley was called up to replace Masahiro Tanaka (forearm) in the rotation and breezed through five innings in his season debut on Tuesday. The 25-year-old surrendered one run and six hits while striking out five in as many innings to beat the Tampa Bay Rays. Whitley made four appearances – two starts – against Toronto last season and was knocked around for a total of 13 runs and 19 hits in nine innings.
Dickey has yet to earn a win in 2015 despite going at least six innings in four of his five turns. The former Cy Young Award winner went seven innings at Boston on Wednesday but was reached for four runs and nine hits to absorb the loss. Dickey made his season debut at New York on April 8 and allowed one run on four hits and three walks in 6 1/3 innings without factoring in the decision.
WALK-OFFS
1. The Blue Jays took two of three from the Yankees to begin the regular season.
2. New York CF Jacoby Ellsbury is 13-for-23 in the last five games.
3. Toronto C Russell Martin is 5-for-10 with two home runs, two RBIs and four runs scored in his last two games.