Written by Ken Fidlin at NationalPost.com
Not one line in New York Yankee pitcher Chad Green’s biography would have indicated to the Blue Jays that they were facing the second coming of Cy Young Monday night.
Then again, there’s been a lot of that going around. The Jays have made quite a habit of inflating the strikeout totals of young pitchers just getting their feet wet all over the American League.
And so it was in this series opener against a kid whose three previous starting assignments this season had resulted in 24 hits plus 10 walks and 15 earned runs over 18 innings. All Green did was shut the Jays out over six innings, striking out 11, allowing just two hits on the way to a 1-0 New York victory in the opener of this three-game series.
The only run the Yankees needed was delivered by Aaron Judge, another fresh-off-the-farm prospect, who is now hitting .500 with three RBI and two home runs in his four games as a big-leaguer. His double off Toronto starter and loser R.A. Dickey scored Brian McCann from second base in the fourth inning.
The Jays did find themselves a ray of hope in the top of the ninth inning when catcher Josh Thole led off with a walk against Yankee closer Dellin Betances.
“Great pitching performance by both sides,” said Toronto manager John Gibbons. “It’s always frustrating for whoever is on the short end of one of those games. We battled.
“I thought we had a shot at the end but Headley made a good play on Eddie’s ball. It was a big hit by Josh after a tough at-bat by Thole. But it’s tough to have to do something against Betances.”
It wasn’t as if the Blue Jays made a lot of chances for themselves. Through the first eight innings, they had a grand total of two base runners, combining back-to-back hits in the top of the fifth inning. Neither Troy Tulowitzki nor Darrell Ceciliani advanced one foot further as Green fanned two in a row to end the inning.
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