Jays Sweep Yankees in First Big Showdown and Stroman Cleared to Throw



It was a pretty amazing weekend of baseball that we just witnessed. The sweep, of course, was fantastic. The Jays now sit 1.5 games back of the AL East leading Yankees.

The Jays pitching held New York to just one run over the three game set, and that one run was a disputed run- a homer off R.A. Dickey by Mark Teixera that may or may not have cleared the fence. The Jays outscored the Yankees 10-1 and shut them out two games in a row for the first time ever in franchise history.

There were key homers in this series by Bautista, Donaldson and Smoak. The run differential that the Jays had for the season meant that their winning percentage at the trade deadline should've been .588, rather than .495 that was the reality. As the New York Times wrote, this surge, given that differential, was only a matter of time. 

All of this was great to watch, but the interesting thing is that, for once, the Yankees looked uncomfortable for most of it and occasionally looked hapless and ordinary. They were getting frustrated by strike calls, they were taking when they maybe should've been swinging and just looked kind of miserable. I'm not crowing about it, it's just that it's so very rare to see the Yankees like this and to have the Jays be the cause.

It really felt like the Jays had their foot on the throttle and accelerated all weekend. The first sweep of the Yankees in New York since 2003.

I think Brett Gardner getting beaned by a Bautista homer ball being thrown back on the field sort of summed up the whole weekend for the Yankees.

“I just wore it. Didn't even turn around,” he said. “It wasn't like it was coming from the second row. It was a long ways away.”

I realize it's tradition to throw opposing team homer balls back on the field in Yankee Stadium, but I'm sure Gardner and others would appreciate fans aiming for the vast amounts of grass that makes up the outfield and not at his head.

Nice aim, though. Nice arm, too.

Josh Donaldson, who along with David Price shares AL Player of the Week honours, had a pretty massive series with first inning homers in the first and third games. He's unconcious right now.

"I think what it says is I'm getting ready for the first at-bat and [beyond]," Donaldson said of his first-inning homers. "It helps when you have great hitters around you, not only behind you, but I have Tulo in front. Right away, those guys have to be on top of their game, and I just kind of have been fortunate enough to get some pretty good pitches and put good swings on them."

Donaldson led the AL with five home runs , nine runs scored , 27 total bases  and seven extra-base hits, while batting .385 (10-for-26) with two doubles and eight RBIs over seven games. Price went 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 15 innings in his first two starts with the club since being acquired from the Tigers.

In general, everything feels pretty great right now.

"When you get five really talented Major Leaguers that are great players -- they've been in All-Star Games, playoffs -- and they come to us all at the same time at the Trade Deadline, and we already had a good team, it's pretty obvious that we're going to feel better about ourselves," said Jose Bautista. "We're a better team overall."

And as if things could get any happier, Marcus Stroman announced via Twitter that he's been cleared to begin throwing again. Dr. James Andrews was very impressed with Stroman's progress and credited his hard work.




Stroman also got a selfie with Dr. Andrews.

A+ use of goat emoji, young man.

And later tweeted this, because he is adorable.