Blue Jays at Yankees
The New York Yankees followed up a lackluster road trip with a laugher to open a long homestand and they'll try to continue to dominate the Toronto Blue Jays when the teams continue their three-game series at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Andrew McCutchen slugged his first home run in the Bronx while going 3-for-3 and Masahiro Tanaka tossed six scoreless innings in an 11-0 victory over the Blue Jays in the series opener on Friday.
New York's 14-hit attack allowed it to move on from a 4-5 road trip and remain 1 1/2 games ahead of Oakland in the race for the first wild card in the American League. The Yankees, whose magic number to clinch a postseason berth is six, are 13-4 against Toronto - 7-1 at home. They will try to keep the season series a one-sided one behind CC Sabathia, who has gone six straight starts without allowing a home run. Losers of four straight, the Blue Jays counter with rookie Sean Reid-Foley.
TV: 4:05 p.m. ET, Sportsnet (Toronto), YES (Toronto)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Blue Jays RH Sean Reid-Foley (1-3, 6.86 ERA) vs. Yankees LH CC Sabathia (7-6, 3.54)
Reid-Foley tossed a gem at Miami two turns ago to pick up his first career win, striking out 10 in seven innings of one-run ball. He regressed six days later by giving up six runs in 4 2/3 frames in a loss to Cleveland. The 23-year-old suffered the loss Aug. 18 at Yankee Stadium in his second career start, giving up eight runs (six earned) in a season-low 4 1/3 innings.
After working six innings in each of his last three starts in August, Sabathia finished 3 1/3 and five, respectively, in his two outings during New York's recent road trip. The 38-year-old, who is 26 strikeouts away from becoming the 17th pitcher in baseball history to reach 3,000, is 5-2 with a 2.61 ERA at home. Sabathia allowed three earned runs in 16 1/3 innings over three starts against the Blue Jays earlier in the year.
WALK-OFFS
1. Yankees RF Aaron Judge (wrist) was removed from the 10-day disabled list Friday and went in as a defensive replacement in the eighth but he is still not ready to hit.
2. The Blue Jays are 23-41 against the AL East and 42-41 against all other opponents.
3. New York C Gary Sanchez has two three-hit efforts in his last four contests.