Deivi Garcia, Gleyber Torres have big night as Yankees end slide with win over Blue Jays
BUFFALO – Two players the Yankees hope will be centerpieces to prolonged success in the future helped extract the franchise from one of its worst ruts in years.
For one night anyway.
Behind seven brilliant innings from 21-year-old rookie righthander Deivi Garcia and two big hits, including a homer, from the previously slumping Gleyber Torres, the Yankees snapped a five-game losing streak with a 7-2 victory over the Blue Jays to avoid a three-game sweep at Sahlen Field.
The Yankees (22-21), losers of 15 of their last 20 entering the night, avoided falling below .500 and moved within two games of the second-place Blue Jays (24-19) in the AL East. They trail the first-place Rays, off on Wednesday, by six games with 17 to play.
“Obviously, it’s been too long since we ‘ve gotten a win,” said Aaron Boone, who compared the music blasting from the winning clubhouse to “a discothèque,” which was clearly audible as he spoke. “For us to play a complete game in a lot of ways and get a great start from our young pitcher was huge. Hopefully it’s something that guys can exhale a little bit and really start taking off. I really feel like that’s around the corner for us.”
The victory indeed allowed the Yankees, awful for the most part over the last three weeks as they plunged into the eighth and final playoff seed, to exhale. But only briefly with the Orioles, hot on their tail for that No. 8 spot and coming off taking three of four against the Yankees last weekend, set to start a four-game series at the Stadium Thursday night.
Though Torres’ outburst was welcome for a skidding offense – the 23-year-old, 3 for his last 22 coming in, went 2-for-5 with four RBIs – the story of the night by far was the work done by the 21-year-old Garcia (1-1, 3.06), who shined in his third big-league start that resulted in his first big-league win.
Garcia, whose wiry 5-9, 163-pound frame has drawn comparisons to his idol – and fellow Dominican countryman – Pedro Martinez, allowed two runs and five hits. Effectively mixing a mid-90s fastball with an at-times nasty changeup and diving breaking pitches, he struck out six and did not walk a batter, giving Garcia 18 strikeouts and two walks over 17 2/3 total innings.
Did he feel pressure to win a game many around the team felt was the most important of the year?
“No. No pressure,” Garcia said through this interpreter. “The reason behind it is I enjoy the competition. Tough game, tough opponent, that’s what I enjoy...I don't see it as pressure, I see it more as my responsibility to go out there and give us a chance."
Garcia did that and more, at one point retiring eight in a row and 15 of the last 16 he faced.
“He’s unfazed by this, he’s unflappable,” Boone said. “It is rare [for that young of a pitcher].”
The bullpen, brutal of late – including here Monday when Chad Green and Adam Ottavino tag-teamed to allow 10 Blue Jays runs in the sixth inning to blow a 6-2 lead – held on. Zack Britton pitched a scoreless eighth and, after two insurance runs, Aroldis Chapman pitched a perfect ninth in a non-save situation.
Torres’ second-inning homer, his second of the year, off Tanner Roark made it 1-0 and Garcia’s lone mistake came in the bottom half when Derek Fisher hit a two-run homer. But DJ LeMahieu’s fifth homer, a solo shot leading off the third against Roark, tied it and Luke Voit’s RBI single off Ross Stripling in the fifth untied it. Torres’ two-run double later in the inning made it 5-2 and the Yankees, at last, were able to coast.
“I think it’s important just for the confidence, to get some people off our backs right now because we’re not playing the way we know we can,” said Clint Frazier, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI. “Tonight we did really well. Exhale now, but be ready to go tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that and continue to build off of tonight.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
More Yankees headlines
